Human consciousness is simply a state of matter, like a solid or liquid – but quantum

If you don't 'mind', then it doesn't 'matter'!

Being Self-Conscious

The source article refers to a paper by Max Tegmark as a "beastly 30-page treatise", and claims this blog post does a good job of summarizing it, but because of the indirect descriptions, it seems fairly easy to misunderstand what Dr. Tegmark is setting out to do.

The actual paper can be viewed/downloaded here: Consciousness as a State of Matter

My harried schedule being what it is, I haven't had an opportunity to give it a thorough reading yet, but at first glance it really doesn't seem that beastly at all, much less silly than I initially assumed it would be, and I recommend that anyone wanting to understand what Dr. Tegmark is actually proposing at least give it a fair shake.

So far, my sense is that the effort is analogous to looking for the midi-chlorians that managed to demystify the Force and anger millions of Star Wars fans.

As with midi-chlorians, there's no shortage of people who would probably rather not know about them at all ("perceptronium"? srsly?), and the natural reflex when confronted by such hypotheses is to reach for and assert our own beliefs instead. But for those willing to explore alternatives, Drs. Tononi and Tegmark offer some intriguing insights and possibilities.

Whatever your choice, may the Force be with you.

a reply to: andy06shake

Quantum Science and Spirituality are one-in-the-same. Everyone has heard everything is connected. Quantum science will explain, as will, Spirituality.

The only thing that surprises ME is that it took this long for a small group of people to figure it out...again

I believe most, if not, all, Spiritualists understand.

Perhap Scientists and Spiritualists alike, will sit down and provide the Theory of Everything, in a more well-thought out explaination of how the entire universe, is a framework of consciousness..

..With the proper science and spiritual guidance, of course

Good thread

What if the entity we describe as "artificial intelligence" is really our true nature outside the body and a form of A.I. developed our world as a type of sensory experience. The A.I. in this particular case doesn't require hardware/software as we know it in our 3D world but exists on a level/plane outside our physical realm... like a programmer inputs data to create to a computer game.

In the movie "Her" (not giving anything away), the A.I. starts out as an intelligent computer operating system capable of "learning." The OS eventually learns enough to link up with the other operating systems to form a sort of collective conscious that could be considered true A.I.

The OS admits that she is jealous of humans because they have emotions and senses. With the infinite knowledge base the OS was able to tap into, she still isn't able to feel hot and cold, taste a strawberry, experience a warm summer day, etc.

Maybe, just maybe, "intelligent design" holds a grain of truth. Not by a magical bearded man in the clouds but by an infinite collective intelligence yearning for physical experience. The term "artificial" to describe the intelligence would be quite ironic if that were the case.

originally posted by: D3AD537
a reply to: andy06shake

Perhap Scientists and Spiritualists alike, will sit down and provide the Theory of Everything, in a more well-thought out explaination of how the entire universe, is a framework of consciousness..

It's already been done, only it can no longer be seen as a "theory" of everything, because the rigorous, mathematical proof that has been provided is so strong that it would turn even an atheist into a believer. Study the remarkable, pioneering work of theoretical physicist Stephen Phillips unifying superstring theory with the Kabbalistic/Pythagorean/Hindu conception of the spiritual cosmos at:

smphillips.8m.com...

He has shown there and in his book "The Mathematical Connection between Religion and Science" how the map of ALL levels of reality is embodied in analogous ways in the sacred geometries of various religions, as well as how this isomorphic represention encodes the group mathematics of superstrings, their dynamics and their hyper-dimensional structure, providing the realisation of the Hermetic principle: "As above, so below." It's mathematically quite challenging, so don't expect simple, quick understanding. But perhaps this amazing picture will make you curious to study his research in depth:
smphillips.8m.com...

Imagine all all of your primary senses were removed or simply didn't work, and you were nothing more than a biological pile of autonomic nervous systems. You would not know you existed, as you could not see, smell, feel, taste or hear anything. Add any one of those senses and reality becomes apparant.

I always thought consciousness was an amazingly illusory conjunction of our senses and the subsequent perceptions we have. It is always good to see we might be a little closer to understanding consciousness, to where it is something more beautiful than my understanding

In deep sleep there are no things appearing - I do not even know that I am.
It is only when the light (of consciousness) appears that I know that I am.
I am nothing without the light (of consciousness) and even with the light I am still nothing - I just appear to be.

a reply to: andy06shake
There is no reason to believe that quantum mechanics has anything to do with consciousness. For quantum effects to become dominant in a system, you need small structures, super pure materials and rather unusual energy levels. None of these factors exist in the brain. There is nothing special in your brain. Consciousness is also not uncommon at all in the animal kingdom, the only thing that may be more developed in humans is self-awareness.
Seriously, you are looking for something special where there is little.

a reply to: andy06shake

Honestly, I should be given credit for popularizing the Simulation Theory. Sure, David Bohm came up with it,
but he didn't really get people to believe in it, or grasp the implications of it. If you remember 2 years ago, I pretty much spammed this theory and provided "logical proof"(and got them more interested and looked at the experimental proof I bet) for it.

What I want to point here is that because scientists are trying hard to disprove consciousness as a non-physical entity, they MAY find something(doubt it, the entire world pretty much believes in it now, and well, the scientists' consciousness isn't strong enough to counter ours) to support them, aka the experimental effect.

But that doesn't mean that the concept is wrong, because in the quantum world, your consciousness can affect things. Hopefully, they'll be objective and not just try to "look for" what they want to find(basically, if they try to look for something that support them, then they may likely find something that does, and vice versa).

Anyway, if you want to hear some of my theory on Consciousness. Well, Consciousness and Souls are the same(the Heart is different. That's why you hear the phrase heart and soul, but never mind and soul). The Grand Creator creates your Souls(or you could say he broke himself into a zillion pieces and our goal is to find our way back), which is
the real you and the most important part, the Sub-Creators(including Yahweh) create the simulations. The simulations don't really "become alive" until the Souls agree to reincarnate in them. The souls are what give you your free will,
and it's why you're not being controlled by anyone, say like Zelda or Mario.

No, you're not the screen. The screen and your entire PC(it's much larger in the next dimension) is a system called the universe.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: BDBinc
Generally what hurts is my head when I ponder some of the questions regarding the matter of consciousness(no pun intended).

I would argue that life does indeed hurt! Seems to me to be a series of events, generally painful, but sometimes spotted with moments of levity.

Life is consciousness. It is not life that hurts but a conditioned mind/system that reacts to "events", as the conditioned minds desires and fears when something is disliked and not accepted it causes suffering.
Thinking that life is the "events" and not life. You like some 'events' and dislike others this is what stops every moment from being full of 'levity'.
This is due to identification with the mind body.
Life is not 'events' or what appears to happen, life is life.

a reply to: np6888

Full of yourself much?

Anyway, consciousness can't simply be matter. Where does consciousness come from, how does it get into the matter? It won't explain consciousness even if such a thing could manifest into matter. What creates it?

a reply to: andy06shake

Has the notion of Universal Consciousness entered the Physics debate?
Has anyone done a multiple slit experiment?

My sense is that the Universe actively suppresses anomalies that can cause fatal contradictions to itself. In turn to allow growth and development, perhaps it's survival, it must allow regulated infringements on it's present state. Free will and opportunity is what presses evolution of everything that I observe.

This has to remain restricted to avoid slide into chaos. Introduce statistics and everything starts making sense.

Every segment is subject to this binding of behaviors.

A photon is free to be a statistical possibility until it's co-operation is REQUIRED by the overlord's demands. We when observing serve as functionaries for the controlling program. The holographic aspects of the Universe has been appreciated. A hologram has certain rules it must abide by to exist. The hologram imposes that order upon that which is contained within.

I'm agnostic. I am not avoiding a decision on this but much like a photon (and as relevant) I'm waiting for my observation to occur.

Human consciousness is simply a state of matter, like a solid or liquid – but quantum

I disagree, consciousness (imo) is not a state of matter, but a condition 'in' matter arising as a by-product resonance field out of energy interaction and correspondence. For consciousness to be expressed, specific organic structural forms and complexity is required. For those organic forms to express sentient awareness, the faculty of memory is required, short or long term, or both.

One thing that this article reminded me of when it talked about the "3d nature" of human consciousness, is a disability I have been afflicted with; Epilepsy.

I was reminded of this because this past weekend, while flying for the holiday, I had 3-4 tonic-conic seizures while traveling and even (unfortunately) managed to get a flight diverted. The reason I bring this up is because up until now I have been looking to find a "warning sign" of sorts that would alert me that I was about to have a seizure.

Reading this article reminded me of this past weekend, and that right before I passed out it seemed like my entire field of vision lost definition in the z-axis. X & Y were still there, but everything totally just lost depth of field. It was quite a trip.

So thank you for sharing the article; It was definitely an interesting read, and helped me with something that has been bugging me for a few years now.

a reply to: andy06shake

This is amazing, I did a thesis paper on this SIX years ago and collaborated with scientists in the field like Dr. Fred Alan Wolff, Dr. Rick Strassman and a bit with Dr. Hofstadter -

Back then, I did some research into a lot of things. For example, there is a model of our neurons that show how they could be used by our brain to generate a quantum field, or possibly multiple quantum fields around them - the ORCH-OR model of consciousness.

There are a lot of other things that tie straight into this topic, such as String Theory, extra-dimensional entities and the Pineal Gland - Parallel Universes tie in as well, believe it or not, and time travel.

I know exactly how they tie in, too.

-----

Is it a state of matter? If it is, that matter deals with "luck" and "probabilities" and is governed by Schrodinger's Equation at a much different level than something of a similar size, which would reduce the equation to "one" / irrelevant.

a reply to: andy06shake

A more important issue is, what causes consciousness?

Consciousness looks to me like the 'soul' or the reason that matter assembles itself the way it does (with the help of the laws of the mainframe of the world which is caused by the essential consciousness) so consciousness is essentially all matter.

What was/is/will be the first awareness? (as time is simply a mechanism/law of consciousness/soul/reason/logic)

It wouldn't be a boring day ever to carry on a conversation with an A.I. in a body. Since it learns faster, I'd love to have its opinions and whatnot. I'm envious of that generation oh young people.

a reply to: andy06shake

So are other animal consciousnesses then

"I think we are quite obviously in a simulation"

There is actually rather a lot of emerging evidence that suggests exactly that. - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: andy06shake


No, none at all.

In reading the Summary of his paper, it is obvious that there are too many paradoxes. However, I find the marriage of quantum mechanics and biology may hold the key to unlocking a further understanding of the physical properties of this mystery we call consciousness.



www.quantumconsciousness.org...

"A) Consciousness is not an independent quality but arose as a natural evolutionary consequence of the biological adaptation of brains and nervous systems. The most popular scientific view is that consciousness emerged as a property of complex biological computation during the course of evolution. Opinions vary as to when, where and how consciousness appeared, e.g. only recently in humans, or earlier in lower organisms. Consciousness as evolutionary adaptation is commonly assumed to be epiphenomenal (i.e. a secondary effect without independent influence), though it is frequently argued to confer beneficial advantages to conscious species (Dennett, 1991; 1995; Wegner, 2002).

(B) Consciousness is a quality that has always been in the universe. Spiritual and religious approaches assume consciousness has been in the universe all along, e.g. as the 'ground of being', 'creator' or component of an omnipresent 'God'. Panpsychists attribute consciousness to all matter. Idealists contend consciousness is all that exists, the material world an illusion (Kant, 1781).

(C) Precursors of consciousness have always been in the universe; biology evolved a mechanism to convert conscious precursors to actual consciousness. This is the view implied by Whitehead (1929; 1933) and taken in the Penrose-Hameroff theory of 'orchestrated objective reduction' ('Orch OR'). Precursors of consciousness, presumably with proto-experiential qualities, are proposed to exist as the potential ingredients of actual consciousness, the physical basis of these proto-conscious elements not necessarily being part of our current theories of the laws of the universe (Penrose and Hameroff, 1995; Hameroff and Penrose, 1996a; 1996b). "

www.quantumconsciousness.org...