Cosmic Intelligence (Agnosticism)

by George Jelliss , Crewe, Thursday, June 11, 2009, 10:35 (5643 days ago) @ dhw

David Turell writes; "On the other hand, what is consciousness? I don't know and I'm sure George doesn't either." - This mysticism about "consciousness" is typical of people who want to beleive in cosmic intelligence. It has become a fetish word. Consciousness is simply self-awareness to some degree. - DT: "It is certainly an emergent property of the brain." - The term "emergence" is another of these buzz words that means very little. Consciousness has evolved as a feature of the human nervous system as a result of evolutionary changes to its structure and organisation. There is no prospect consciousnes suddenly "emerging" in a brain, or in a network like the world-wide-web say, without other structural changes evolving, such as links to external and internal sensors. - DT: "but I doubt that a future highly developed computer will ever have consciousness and be aware of itself in the way we are." - I see no reason why an artificial intelligence machine should not be developed that has a degree of self-awareness.
 
DT: "I suspect, like Nadeau and Kafatos, "The Non-Local Universe"', 1999, Oxford Press, that the 'mind' is somewhere in quantum entanglement, behind the 'wall of uncertainty'. Part of the mystery religions call God." - More "consciousness" mystification. There is no evidence that quantum entanglement has anything to do with the workings of the brain. - 
DHW: "since no-one has yet worked out how the "electrical or chemical" structures actually produce consciousness, thought, symphonies, sculptures, ESP, NDEs, OBEs, inexplicable knowledge etc., I cannot dismiss the idea of a different dimension as wish-fulfilment or pipe-dreams." - We can actually see the brain operating, carrying out these functions! The idea that the same functions somehow exist in the cosmos as a whole is just airy-fairy hand-waving piffle.

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GPJ