Human Consciousness: Simply a state of matter? (Humans)

by BBella , Saturday, October 31, 2015, 20:37 (3097 days ago) @ David Turell

Bbella: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/181284-human-consciousness-is-simply-a-state-of-matt... > 
> > "In short, though, it outlines Tononi's ITT — that consciousness results from a system that can store and retrieve vast amounts of information efficiently — and then moves onto his own creation, perceptronium, which he describes as “the most general substance that feels subjectively self-aware.” This substance can not only store and retrieve data, but it's also indivisible and unified (this is where we start to wander into the “here be dragons” realm of souls and spirits and so forth)."
> > 
> > Comment: Although the article doesn't explain what he means by "unified" this is what I would like to know more about what Tononi meant by it. And of course Tononi's and the other neuroscientist and theoretical physicists do not go into what causes or creates consciousness.
> 
> Thank you for a very interesting and I think controversial theory. Consciousness is 'thought' and as such is not material, even though it arises from a material brain. Bluntly, the physical chemistry of biology does not explain life. These theories are just another form of an attempt at a naturalism explanation. To quote Nagel in Mind and Cosmos: "I have argued patiently against the prevailing form of naturalism, a reductive materialism that purports to capture life and mind through its neo-Darwinian extension....I find this view antecedently unbelievable---- a heroic triumph of ideological theory over common sense." In short I don't buy any of it, not being much a fan of Tegmark.-I don't think it's that far off the mark. Since thought carries/projects information and has proven to affect change in substance, it's not too difficult of a reach for me to imagine that consciousness as well as intelligence is itself a substance. Substance in the sense that it IS.