hey science

[xBiffx]

No you don't!

IKR.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

There are some things we can never know. This might be one.

 

[moonbogg]

A lot of progress has been made on the neural correlates of consciousness, but no one has a clue about consciousness itself. The leading geniuses working on it all have *completely* different theories, so good luck getting an atoter to solve it.

 

[Ruptga]

OH look. Someone needed to replace Silver Prime I guess.

evidence....

Next up: Nazi vs. Atheist.

 

[ctbaars]

What do I know?

 

[massmedia]

Prove that consciousness exists.

that's for philosophers...

aka not scientists

 

[massmedia]

neuroscientists have some good leads btw.
come back in 30-50 years and ask

 

[BudAshes]

We're not conscious. We just pretend to be.

 

[Ruptga]

neuroscientists have some good leads btw.
come back in 30-50 years and ask

We also had some good leads in the 80s and 90s. The problem with solutions that are 20+ years away is that, for the most part, they are always 20 years away. I don't doubt that humanity will find an answer, but I'm not holding my breath waiting.

 

[moonbogg]

We also had some good leads in the 80s and 90s. The problem with solutions that are 20+ years away is that, for the most part, they are always 20 years away. I don't doubt that humanity will find an answer, but I'm not holding my breath waiting.

The nut is so tough to crack, some people like to think there is no nut.

 

[massmedia]

We also had some good leads in the 80s and 90s. The problem with solutions that are 20+ years away is that, for the most part, they are always 20 years away. I don't doubt that humanity will find an answer, but I'm not holding my breath waiting.

sounds like a wive's tale to me

btw, is it politically incorrect to use that term these days?

 

[Ruptga]

The nut is so tough to crack, some people like to think there is no nut.

Yeah but, to be fair, sometimes there is no nut. Scientists worked on the problem of detecting the luminiferous aether for a really long time before they realized that it doesn't exist. And as it turned out, those final experiments were still extremely useful because they laid the groundwork for the theory of relativity that would come a few decades later.

 

[moonbogg]

Yeah but, to be fair, sometimes there is no nut. Scientists worked on the problem of detecting the luminiferous aether for a really long time before they realized that it doesn't exist. And as it turned out, those final experiments were still extremely useful because they laid the groundwork for the theory of relativity that would come a few decades later.

That's true. But could consciousness be that way? Whatever it is or isn't, the phenomenon is real or we wouldn't be having this discussion. It might be emergent from brain activity or it might be something else, but its a real phenomenon, whether it be straight forward or tricky in some way, it still needs an explanation. It appears to be an impossible trick for unconscious matter to pull off, yet its doing it.

 

[Ruptga]

That's true. But could consciousness be that way? Whatever it is or isn't, the phenomenon is real or we wouldn't be having this discussion. It might be emergent from brain activity or it might be something else, but its a real phenomenon, whether it be straight forward or tricky in some way, it still needs an explanation. It appears to be an impossible trick for unconscious matter to pull off, yet its doing it.

I agree, I was just throwing that out there because sometimes the entire world is wrong about something really important, and we end up having to completely overhaul our ideas of how things work. To continue with my example, light didn't stop existing and neither did space. We found that they just don't work the way we thought they had to, and we came up with new theories to explain how they could work. It's entirely possible that current research into cognition will also hit dead ends before setting off in an entirely different but more correct direction. In the mean time it looks like we'll just have to content ourselves with saying that, by virtue of being able to argue about cognition at all, it is proven that we do think... somehow.

 

[Thebobo]

No matter where you go there you are.

 

[Braznor]

In my opinion, the electrons fired by our neurons interfere with each other as they travel through the neural network in our brains. This interference gives rise to the sensation of the unified consciousness and by itself is a quantum phenomenon in nature.

The information carried by these electrons make up the various qualia we experience and gives structure to our thoughts and sensations.

This is just my opinion. Please don't flog me over it.

 

[WHAMPOM]

explain consciousness.

Like a CPU running only on RAM. Gets turned on, gets programmed, runs them, gets old and slow, gets turned off, all gone!

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Prove anything exists.

Prove it to who?

 

[SlitheryDee]

con·scious·ness
ˈkän(t)SHəsnəs/
noun
noun: consciousness

1. the state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings.
   "she failed to regain consciousness and died two days later"
   
   
   • the awareness or perception of something by a person.
     plural noun: consciousnesses
     "her acute consciousness of Mike's presence"
     
     
   • the fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world.
     "consciousness emerges from the operations of the brain"
     
     
   
   
   
   

 

[disappoint]

This is too large a topic for a message board post anyway. For those that are serious I recommend books written by neuroscientists on the subject.

Here's a short video of Daniel Dennett talking about it to whet your appetite.
Bon Apetit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-Nj_rEqkyQ

 

[Jeff7]

Some people think quantum processes may be involved as well (specifically inside nanofilaments inside neurons), but afaik the best evidence so far is that it's an emergent property of a large series or web of biochemical processes, just like life itself is.

This.

Your brain is a group of cells doing what they do. They can store and process information. You're conscious because the processing is ongoing. You have a sense of "you" because you have a set of information that is persistent from one moment to the next.
The collection of cells also has the ability to store and process the information that it is a collection of cells with the ability to store and process information, so you are self-aware.

There don't happen to be a whole lot of different instances of that on this planet (unless you count 7 billion individuals), so we think it's something really amazingly special.
100-400 billion stars in the galaxy, and untold billions of galaxies. Yeah, we're special. :awe:

 

[z1ggy]

I'm consciously aware OP is a noob troll.

 

[DrPizza]

Here's a decent response to the OP:
http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/faculty/block/papers/2014.group.pdf

Summary: John Connor is wrong.

 

[disappoint]

An interesting lecture on a related topic, free will, by Sam Harris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZLyYq_QQ3g

Bon Apetit.

 

[xBiffx]

Here's a decent response to the OP:
http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/faculty/block/papers/2014.group.pdf

Summary: John Connor is wrong.

He's the leader of the resistance, what did you expect?