Panpsychism Makes a Comeback (General)

by dhw, Friday, February 26, 2016, 12:52 (3191 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: QUOTE: “Carl Woese, a renowned biologist who gave us the modern tree of life, believed that the Darwinian era was preceded by an early phase of life governed by very different evolutionary forces. Woese thought it would have been nearly impossible for an individual cell to spontaneously come up with everything it needed for life. So he envisioned a rich diversity of molecules engaged in a communal existence. Rather than competing with each other, primitive cells shared the molecular innovations they invented. Together, the pre-Darwinian pool created the components needed for complex life, priming the early Earth for the emergence of the magnificent menagerie we see today.”
But I'd better repeat that I find all this as difficult to believe as your own theory that consciousness appeared on a rocky planet because a conscious designer never appeared but somehow just existed. - DAVID: Someone who could think had to come first. A rocky planet does not have the wherewithal to invent consciousness, does it? - Nobody knows the origin of consciousness, and the mystery is not solved by saying it was invented by someone who was conscious enough to think.