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> I personally came to the conclusion that a deterministic machine cannot be consciouss. Is the difference between being conscious or not defined by reading fr

• RivieraKid 13y ago
  The way I view consciousness is that it's outside of the physical world, but it can directly interact with something physical – the brain. The interaction can go both ways. Physical world can obviously affect consciousness, if I put alcohol into my brain, my consciousness changes. But consciousness can also "push" physical particles in the brain. One possibility is that this happens through quantum phenomena that are supposedly random according to current theory. Or perhaps the brain just pushes atoms. Either way, this should be testable in the future. If you accept this view on consciousness, you can conclude that a deterministic system cannot be consciouss. Of course, you'll probably argue that my view on consciousness is ridiculously unfounded. I disagree, I think there are very strong arguments for it :) A very brief version: (1) There are good reasons to believe that consciousness is more than a complex interaction of physical particles. But physical particles can affect consicousness, so the mind is at least a passive observer. (2) It's actually an active observer, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this. (3) If it's an active observer, the mind must have a way to affect brain's matter.