DOB
Bluelighter
how it works,why we feel,think,and imagine when we are just mass of organic molecules? robots can be made to have electronic brain,they will do everything human can do but they will still be just pile of metal,why are we different?
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P&S Moderators: JackARoe | Cheshire_Kat
technolodgy behind consciousness
- Thread starter DOB
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polymath
Bluelight Crew
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness
I read a book by David Chalmers, "The Conscious Mind", examining this subject a year ago... It's probably available as a pirated pdf-version, but I can't remember where.
I read a book by David Chalmers, "The Conscious Mind", examining this subject a year ago... It's probably available as a pirated pdf-version, but I can't remember where.
Apostacious
Bluelighter
My recommendation for good reading on the subject from a recent quantum physicist's approach:
http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Enigma-Physics-Encounters-Consciousness/dp/019534250X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1303328590&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Enigma-Physics-Encounters-Consciousness/dp/019534250X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1303328590&sr=8-2
DOB
Bluelighter
thank you all for these links,will defo check it out 
DOB
Bluelighter
isnt there some interenet version of that book?
DOB
Bluelighter
can someone explain to me in short how it works? I dont feel like buying and reading long book now,I want your opinion
polymath
Bluelight Crew
No one knows how it works. According to materialistic mainstream science, a human is just a complicated machine, like the robot you described in the original post, and doesn't really have a "soul" (or whatever you like to call it).
There are some theories, like the one by Penrose & Hameroff that try to explain consciousness as a quantum phenomenon occurring in the brain, but those theories are highly speculative and are not taken seriously by most scientists.
I'm not a materialist myself, BTW.
Pythagoras
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2009
- Messages
- 625
I personally believe that Penrose is on to something (and if ever there was a mind to find a explanation for consciousness it is his), I don't agree with Hameroff, whom Penrose, ever the empirical scientist allied himself with the neuroscientist in a vain attempt to garner empirical evidence. If you want to understand the current theories of consciousness
- Higher-order theories
- Representational theories
- Cognitive theories
- Neural theories
- Quantum theories
- Nonphysical theories/Metaphysical theories*
Visit SEP's entry on Consciousness for the Philosophical assumtions/theories of consciousness.
PAX
*From The SEP
Perspective/Human consciousness
How are you supposed to know who you are when you see everything through every perspective you can imagine but choose none? This question keeps boggling my mind, I keep going through loops in my head changing my mind over and over; the constant use of psychedelics keeps reshaping my brain. I keep questioning where I want to put my own personal happiness, which is, after all, something the individual chooses (or has chosen for them by their surroundings but continues this subconsciously). I want to put my own happiness in the happiness of others but at the same time I don't know how to do that. Sometimes I feel that by helping others in their endeavors I'm just helping them dig their own grave; if they choose a life of meaningless selfish pleasures they're not contributing anything to the human condition, but is the human condition actually worth contributing to in the state it's currently in? How do you contribute? There are so many ways to but so many of them are faulted in their fundamental principles. I think Buddhist monks have the right idea about meditating to make happiness/inner peace/love/kindness a concrete state of mind before setting foot into the world and possibly infecting the world with harmful emotions like anger, selfishness, hate and greed which spread by way of social interaction... I think my head needs a break right now I'm thinking myself into loops again but I'll come back and edit this later...
While I say all of this I have absolutely no knowledge of much external philosophy or psychology, most of what I speak of has been discovered through personal self-discovery through the use of mind-altering substances and closely examining my own consciousness by way of mindfulness (which I think is another word for meditation?). I think psychonauts like Alexander Shulgin and Buddhist monks like Dalai Lama may be my inspiration though I haven't read nearly enough by either of them to even begin to pretend to know what I'm talking about. Maybe I'm just a stupid junkie haha.
Edit: Sorry if this is a wee bit off-topic; it was moved from a different thread.
How are you supposed to know who you are when you see everything through every perspective you can imagine but choose none? This question keeps boggling my mind, I keep going through loops in my head changing my mind over and over; the constant use of psychedelics keeps reshaping my brain. I keep questioning where I want to put my own personal happiness, which is, after all, something the individual chooses (or has chosen for them by their surroundings but continues this subconsciously). I want to put my own happiness in the happiness of others but at the same time I don't know how to do that. Sometimes I feel that by helping others in their endeavors I'm just helping them dig their own grave; if they choose a life of meaningless selfish pleasures they're not contributing anything to the human condition, but is the human condition actually worth contributing to in the state it's currently in? How do you contribute? There are so many ways to but so many of them are faulted in their fundamental principles. I think Buddhist monks have the right idea about meditating to make happiness/inner peace/love/kindness a concrete state of mind before setting foot into the world and possibly infecting the world with harmful emotions like anger, selfishness, hate and greed which spread by way of social interaction... I think my head needs a break right now I'm thinking myself into loops again but I'll come back and edit this later...
While I say all of this I have absolutely no knowledge of much external philosophy or psychology, most of what I speak of has been discovered through personal self-discovery through the use of mind-altering substances and closely examining my own consciousness by way of mindfulness (which I think is another word for meditation?). I think psychonauts like Alexander Shulgin and Buddhist monks like Dalai Lama may be my inspiration though I haven't read nearly enough by either of them to even begin to pretend to know what I'm talking about. Maybe I'm just a stupid junkie haha.
Edit: Sorry if this is a wee bit off-topic; it was moved from a different thread.
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