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Dead Matter to Live Aware Matter

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
Ok I didn't hear the nihilistic part in your comment, but yeah if your creating your own meaning that kinda lends itself to nihilism.

Nihilism as I use it is the position that there is no objective truth. Truths are just constructs created by man.

I see this as meaning I'm free to create the truth as I see fit. I see truth as relative. My truth doesn't have to be your truth.
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
Nihilism as I use it is the position that there is no objective truth. Truths are just constructs created by man.

I see this as meaning I'm free to create the truth as I see fit. I see truth as relative. My truth doesn't have to be your truth.
I think objective truth exists even though we are not privy to it most of the time.
 

David T

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
This is even a bit more than abiogenesis (how life came about through chemical processes). Where can we point and say, I think there is awareness there? Even at the most rudimentary levels of life, single celled organisms already display signs of learning so awareness is somehow present at the inception of life, the intelligent agent is itself. How could dead matter ever accomplish such a feat?

Here is an article that gets into single celled learning capabilities, which states learning happened in evolution even before nervous systems and brains. How is that possible?
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160427081533.htm
Personally it's all been said already. Anima Mundi simple as that. I can say it" like 2+2=4. But saying that does not give comprehension. Comprehension is an interesting topic to say the least.

I can articulate what anima mundi is I can go on and on. You can read what I said but that is not it. We can argue it, dissect it, philosophize about it abstract about it but that is not comprehension of it at all in any way shape or form. So the topic is easy and very difficult at the same time the problem is not with topic it's with us. In the beginning was the logos. Not hard and nearly impossible at the same time.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Hogwash!
What features of life do they have? They have no organs, they have no protoplasm, they have no metabolism, they can't reproduce themselves, they don't eat or excrete. They're just snippits of nucleic acid in a shell.

They're no differen't from a computer virus; just self-replicating code.
Maybe, maybe not.

Are Viruses Alive?
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
I don't suggest it does. We very usually don't allow our intellectual conclusions to alter (much) our emotional responses, otherwise, for example, the better informed would never fall in love.

(I remember wondering the nature and extent, if any, of the consciousness of our splendid dog when she was alive.)
Going back to your statement that non-conscious does most the work but that's the case for anything in a deterministic universe. However their appears to be a deeper aspect appearing as non-determinism leaving room for cognitive choices.
 

blü 2

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Going back to your statement that non-conscious does most the work but that's the case for anything in a deterministic universe. However their appears to be a deeper aspect appearing as non-determinism leaving room for cognitive choices.
What, exactly?
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
keeping to some notion that life is aware.......

well then ...at what level?

if the form is small and primitive.....it would seek only what it can within reach
and if it has no reach....or sight....or hearing....

then it's awareness is only on point at a point of contact
completely reflexive and only reflexive ...on contact

but as long as it does react......
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
What, exactly?
As far as I can tell about qm, electrons can be in two places at once and this pretty much established fact now with the spooky distance record being shattered in space. That shows a non-deterministic universe and it isn't just random either or that would be useless for quantum computer calculations.
 

blü 2

Veteran Member
Premium Member
As far as I can tell about qm, electrons can be in two places at once and this pretty much established fact now with the spooky distance record being shattered in space. That shows a non-deterministic universe and it isn't just random either or that would be useless for quantum computer calculations.
QM is part of physics, and the physical sciences are my frame for materialism.

As for determinism, I freely acknowledge the possibility, though to the best of my knowledge it's not yet been demonstrated, that quantum effects may randomly alter processes of the brain.
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
QM is part of physics, and the physical sciences are my frame for materialism.

As for determinism, I freely acknowledge the possibility, though to the best of my knowledge it's not yet been demonstrated, that quantum effects may randomly alter processes of the brain.
I think brains could be quantum computers, they do simultaneous processing, a hallmark of quantum computing.
 

blü 2

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I think brains could be quantum computers, they do simultaneous processing, a hallmark of quantum computing.
>This claim< from 2011 is the only one I'm aware of that claims to have demonstrated quantum effects being used by live creatures.

I'm not aware of that any claim of that kind has ever been demonstrated in human brain function.

But there's Roger Penrose's hypothesis in the original The Emperor's New Mind ─ that consciousness is due to unspecified quantum effects in 'microtubules' operating in an unspecified manner. Without ruling out the possibility that some parts of the brain or organs employ quantum effects, that particular one has always sounded like half-baked nonsense to me.

You may be familiar with this material >here<. As it says, only one of the hypotheses claims to be falsifiable ie scientific.
 
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idav

Being
Premium Member
>This claim< from 2011 is the only one I'm aware of that points to quantum effects being used by live creatures.

I'm not aware of any claim of that kind in human brain function.

Unless you include Roger Penrose's hypothesis in the original The Emperor's New Mind that consciousness is due to unspecified quantum effects in 'microtubules' operating in an unspecified manner. No evidence supports the idea, and it's never had the slightest support from research. I haven't read the revised edition, but I'd be surprised if it's still in there.
I think your over thinking that a bit but I know what your talking about. Just the fact that brains run on electricity is a quantum affect. You can't take the quantum out of energy.
 

blü 2

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I think your over thinking that a bit but I know what your talking about. Just the fact that brains run on electricity is a quantum affect. You can't take the quantum out of energy.
Any entity in physics has a quantum aspect, but here the macro aspect is the important part. It's when the QM aspect becomes the important part that ... but you know this already.
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
Any entity in physics has a quantum aspect, but here the macro aspect is the important part. It's when the QM aspect becomes the important part that ... but you know this already.
Yea but I also think everything is really energy.
 

Looncall

Well-Known Member
Yea but I also think everything is really energy.

I wonder where this popular notion came from. As far as I know, energy is not a substance but a shorthand way of keeping track of the states of objects. That makes word salad of your statement.
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
I wonder where this popular notion came from. As far as I know, energy is not a substance but a shorthand way of keeping track of the states of objects. That makes word salad of your statement.
That's not really how I understand matter, the force exhibited from matter is gravity, almost an inverse of what we think energy is. As far as scientists can tell they are able to turn almost any atomic type into anything else like alchemy for atomisists.
 
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