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If you're not a dualist, thoughts necessarily have to be accompanied by some change of state of the material substrate.
by cygx 7y ago
If you're not a dualist, thoughts necessarily have to be accompanied by some change of state of the material substrate.
- adrianN 7y agoDon't underestimate the complexity of a rock's internal state. There is a unfathomable number of atoms in complex crystal lattices in there. Defects in that lattice alone can encode a ton of information. Then you have a bunch of quantum state for each elementary particle. All of that reacts to external stimuli like temperature, pressure, or the occasional cosmic ray.
- cygx 7y agoThoughts are a process, so if they were supported by a crystal lattice, that lattice would have to go through changes. As to your other point, the ergodicity of the system at the very least places a limit on the timescales over which consciousness may persist. I'm fairly confident in my belief that a rock cannot be conscious in any appreciable way.
- skissane 7y agoYou assume that dualism and materialism are the only options. You ignore other possibilities, such as idealism and neutral monism.
- cygx 7y agoYou're right. The dividing line is whether or not you think the physical and the mental necessarily coincide, which is in principle an orthogonal issue.