Stuart Kauffman (Introduction)

by dhw, Thursday, February 05, 2015, 19:31 (3578 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Interviewed on ESP, evolution, Free will, God, and other subjects. A confirmed atheist:-http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2015/02/04/scientific-seeker-stuart-kau...-A fascinating interview, for which many thanks. In addition to his thoughts on free will, I was very taken with the two subjects tackled here:-Horgan: I recently interviewed biologist Rupert Sheldrake. Are you sympathetic toward his call for serious scientific investigation of psychic phenomena?-Kauffman: Yes, if mind is partially quantum, nonlocality is possible so psychokinesis is possible and testable, as is telepathy. We are arrogant not to look at this with open minds, pun intended. Dean Radin claims evidence, dismissed by almost all, but psychokinesis should be testable. He claims positive evidence and non-locality is obvious candidate explanation. We will never get beyond at most epiphenomenal mind with classical physics due to its causal closure. Only quantum mechanics offers a way out at present, that I can see. See history of panpsychism back to Spinoza using 17th century concepts of matter, superseded by quantum mechanics.-Firstly, how refreshing to hear of an atheist who takes psychic phenomena seriously enough to demand an open-minded approach. Secondly, note the reference to panpsychism, which he takes up again in the next quote:-
Horgan: Are science and religion compatible?-Kauffman: Maybe, in some sense, if Penrose-Hameroff Orchestrated Objective Reduction or my “Beyond the Stalemate” ideas are right, we get a wildly panpsychist participatory universe. In such a view, measurement anywhere is associated with consciousness and responsible will, and for entangled particles a coordinated version of the above, a kind of “mind of God.” but not an omnipotent, omniscient, kind God in monotheistic sense at all. I wrote Reinventing the Sacred, Basic Books 2008, in part to find a sense of God as the natural creativity of universe.-The question still remains as to the origin of awareness - whether in your monotheistic scenario or my evolution through interacting energy and matter, but clearly Kauffman takes the atheistic panpsychist hypothesis seriously. That gives some comfort to an agnostic non-scientist who until now has felt all alone while exploring this particular avenue!