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When we think of consciousness, we normally associate with the brain. But according to the complexity theory, shouldn't there also be consciousness in most of o
by Taek 12y ago
When we think of consciousness, we normally associate with the brain. But according to the complexity theory, shouldn't there also be consciousness in most of our organs? The liver is a massive network of cells that are in at least a moderate amount of communication, and yet I am not aware of its consciousness.
But perhaps it is conscious, just at a level that's inaccessible to my brain, which is a nearly distinct structure with very minimal relative communication to the liver.
I also found it interesting that he denied the idea that America might be one larger consciousness. I've had multiple experiences on LSD which have suggested to me that as an aggregate humans are one larger organism with a single collective consciousness, that operates both at a slower speed and a higher overall awareness. (Most accessible in the 150-200ug range)
When you think about how individual neurons work, spraying neurotransmitters at each other to trigger responses from the next neuron, essentially passing information in a complex yet highly organized web, are humans that much different. The set of humans who design cities are different from the set of humans who manage government policies are different from the set of humans that try to go to space. Each human passes information to others in highly complex ways that form super organized macrostructures. It doesn't seem to be that much of a stretch then to say that consciousness also arises from the interactions of the macrostructures in the same way consciousness arises from the interactions of all the parts of our brain.
And the internet would seem to be a massive facilitator of this. Because of the internet, the amount of communication I do per day is enormous, and my interactions happen at a global (though mostly English speaking) scale. I doubt communications of this scope and magnitude were available to humans even 20 years ago.
- john2x 12y agoThe internet, as a neural network, "dreams" of cat videos when they go viral. Huh. In fact, it "decides" for itself which ones should go viral. Interesting thought.
- ganzuul 12y agoI blame my deep integration with the internet for my belief that I'm actually a cat.
- tbastos 12y agoYes, I share your belief in collective consciousness. I think there's little doubt we'll find they do exist, once we find a testable definition of consciousness. BTW one doesn't even need to take acid to realize this. Humans have thought this for thousands of years. It's a common belief of ancient eastern philosophies (metaphysics) such as Taoism and Buddhism, that "we're one consciousness". Our egos just don't think about it, much like a cell of your body operates in another (lower) level of consciousness, where it thinks it's "independent of you".
- ganzuul 12y agoI find it useful to not think of the brain as what's in my cranium, but rather my brain is my entire neural network. I feel not entirely convinced that I'm a Harvard architecture. A von Neumann architecture seems more plausible... long story short because humans have huge problems learning to walk on two legs. Evolutionary neuroscience might provide the answer we seek, through the normal technique of belief propagation.
- amelius 12y agoThe problem I have with this is representation. One's brain cells are a certain representation (in other words implementation). Would the same consciousness be present with another representation (e.g., computers on the internet)? How about if we chose a completely different (nonsensical) representation, for example, at time instance t0 the brain is represented by grains of sand, then at t1, the brain is represented by e.g. the trees in a forest, then at t2, etc. My point is that you could ascribe consciousness to just about anything. Also, if the representation of brain cells produces a consciousness, would the (dual) representation of "NO brain cells" also produce a consciousness, and would they thus both exist at the same time or would they collapse into one consciousness?