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r/IAmVerySmart https://xkcd.com/793/ https://xkcd.com/793/

• skh 8y ago
  She's a physicist and is addressing the notion that electrons have consciousness. She works in quantum gravity and presumably knows quite a bit about particle theory. Her blog post is solely about the idea that electrons can have consciousness and why she - an expert in physics and quantum gravity - believes this isn't possible. Since, according to her conclusions, electrons can't have consciousness then the idea that all matter has consciousness can't be correct. The logic is quite sound. I don't know if her definition of panpsychism is correct but her logic is sound. 1. Electrons are matter. 2. Electrons don't have consciousness. (according to her argument) 3. Therefore the belief that all matter has consciousness is wrong. Note that an argument can be logically sound while having a false conclusion. This happens if one of the premises are wrong. In this case it would be her conclusion that electrons can't have consciousness.