Panpsychism (Evolution)

by dhw, Saturday, December 08, 2012, 15:01 (4367 days ago)

DAVID (under Chimp vs. Human Brain:-http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/could-the-internet-ever-be-conscious-...-The question asked by this article, and the argument that followed, rather put me off, until suddenly the following paragraph ... totally unconnected to the subject of the internet ... sprang to my attention:-"In the course of the interview, Koch also expressed his personal sympathy with the idea that consciousness is a fundamental feature of the universe, like space, time, matter and energy. Koch is also open to the philosophy of panpsychism, according to which all matter has some consciousness associated with it, although the degree of consciousness varies enormously, depending on the complexity of the system. He acknowledges, however, that most neuroscientists don't share his views on such matters."-This seems to be very much in line with the concept of the universe that BBella has sometimes put to us. (BBella, I do hope that you are OK, and that my last post on this thread didn't offend you.) Even if I'm about to make everybody yawn, I would like to go back to the analogy of the intelligent cell, which I will summarize in the hope that hyjyljyj as a newcomer (and of course anyone else) might give us his views.-The human body is composed of multiple cell combinations that function in their own intelligent way without ... we assume ... being aware of themselves and without their being controlled by us. They "take their decisions" independently of our consciousness. This may explain the progress of evolution, during which intelligent cells combine to form new organs and organisms, adapted to or exploiting the environment in which they find themselves. If we define the universe as ALL THAT IS as well as ALL THAT EVER HAS BEEN, it may itself also be a vast body whose elements and energies have for ever and ever been combining into new forms, which come and go just as all forms of matter, organic and inorganic, come and go. There is no guiding, controlling superconsciousness, juggling macroscopically with stars and planets and microscopically with bacteria and eukaryotes, but only degrees of consciousness varying from the lowest (primeval but ever changing energy) to inorganic matter (unconsciously conforming to what appear to be the natural laws of formation and disintegration) to organic matter to evolving animals, which certainly have a degree of self-awareness ... a huge step in the evolution of consciousness - to us, with a degree of self-awareness that in our own experience is unique. The key to this concept is eternity (already accepted by theists) and degrees of "intelligence" resulting in combinations that function without being self-aware (as in living bodies as well as in our own solar system). The advantages of the concept lie (a) in dispensing with an inconceivable, divine, uncaused and all-powerful superconsciousness that has been there forever, doing we know not what with its superpowers, (b) in dispensing with total reliance on chance, since we already have known examples of unselfconscious matter forming intelligent combinations, (c) in resolving some of the most puzzling aspects of evolution (e.g. the Cambrian Explosion), since any major change in the environment could cause a flurry of innovative activity within the intelligent (but unselfconscious) cell communities that make up each organism.-If we take chance v. design as the first two options, perhaps panpsychism could be the third, and I will relegate my agnosticism to the fourth way!