Genome complexity: handling replication (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, January 20, 2017, 17:23 (2646 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: "Nearer to the truth' is an interesting phrase. There must be a 'truth'. Is it other than your current list of possibilities? Can you suggest what that 'truth' might be?

dhw: Chance is one possible ‘truth’, and a single mind (your God) is another, but if your single mind can be sourceless, so can multiple minds, and that is the panpsychist hypothesis that we have frequently discussed. If matter has a mental aspect, that mental dimension might evolve from the bottom upwards. No, I don’t believe it, but it is no more incredible than pure, mindless chance or your one sourceless mind that knows everything beforehand (top downwards). And for the record, I would regard that version of the panpsychist theory as closer to the chance theory than to the God theory.

DAVID: Panpsychism is the theory that mind is present in everything. Since God is mind, I would think you would have placed panpsychism closer to the Gold theory.

Most panpsychist theories do indeed lead to God (it underpins A.N. Whitehead’s process theology, though I believe his God - unlike yours - learns as he goes along), and that is why I am always careful to point out that mine is an individual version. It does not involve a single being, but billions and billions of rudimentary, autonomous intelligences, some of which developed sufficient awareness to begin the process of life and evolution. That is why it is “bottom up” and it is closer to chance than to God because there is no single directing power. Of course we have no idea how “sufficient awareness” could evolve, any more than we know how your God came by his awareness and knowledge – as glossed over by the meaningless philosophical escape route of First Cause.