Consciousness (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, October 05, 2010, 13:49 (5163 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: I've chosen this thread because we don't know how consciousness forms or arises, and there are atheistic scientists who feel they are masters of the game [...]-I agree with you and Balance_Maintained ... the Harris approach is an insult to science and philosophy. I also agree with you that hypnosis presents an additional problem in so far as we don't understand the mechanism by which one person's will can black out a level of consciousness in another person. -A few weeks ago The Guardian published conversations between David Attenborough and Richard Dawkins, and between Stephen Hawking and Brian Cox. They were all asked what problem they hoped scientists would have solved by the end of this century. Dawkins' reply was: "the problem of human consciousness." At least he recognizes one of the faith elements in his godlessness-of-the-gaps. Interestingly, Brian Cox (a researcher on the Large Hadron Collider) said that when he has time to spare, "my mind constantly and gently chews over problems and often an answer or idea will pop into my head almost at random". Another of the major problems for those who opt for a purely materialist explanation. -Although this is not the right thread, you might be interested in a few other quotes. On being asked what was the one piece of science everyone should know, Dawkins replied: "The unity of life that comes about through evolution, since we're all descended from a single common ancestor. It's almost too good to be true, that on one planet this extraordinary complexity of life should have come about by what is pretty much an intelligible process." (Comments, if any, under Evolution, please!)-ATTENBOROUGH: A physicist will tell me that this armchair is made of vibrations and that it's not really here at all. But when Samuel Johnson was asked to prove the material existence of reality, he just went up to a big stone and kicked it.-Here are three quotes that I have lumped together, as the three speakers may not have seen the underlying ironyAWKINS: The science of the future may be vastly different from the science of today, and you have to have the humility to admit when you don't know. But instead of filling that vacuum with goblins or spirits, I think you should say, "Science is working on it."-HAWKING: Science can explain the universe without the need for a Creator.-BRIAN COX (on the problem he hoped scientists would solve:) Also, understanding why the universe began in such a highly ordered state.-(Comments maybe on the Hawking thread.)