Can science explain consciousness reddit
Can science explain consciousness reddit. We can explain centripetal forces. Property dualism. If stuff exists beyond the empirical world (God, transcendent ethics, a priori knowledge, etc. while science has done a ton of experiments and can find relations to neurons and shit. You can't design an experiment to find out the cardinality of a set, or if A->C when A->B and B->C. Deconstruct your conventional ways of thinking and return yourself to the core of cognition, and then you'll start to have a taste of what consciousness is. How many neurons can we disconnect before self awareness ceases? There are people with disconnected hemispheres who function, people with lobotomies who function, people with massive surgically extracted portions of grey matter who function. So no can't explain everything by itself anyways. There are certainly examples of people who are “unconscious” in the medical sense of not being alert (e. In this case, what they mean is, in the first place, that no one has furnished an explanation of this kind -- at least none Continued bafflement about the presumed, physical world obviously doesn’t support a physicalist worldview. Because we can actually ascribe certain functions to certain parts of the brain, see Brodmann-Areas on Plato's allegory is about perspective and still valid. A quick and dirty of the hard problem is that scientific study can explain the how's and why's of the mind and consciousness, but it can't answer why all these processes together make something conscious. That is not evidence of consciousness. As you go about life, each unit of perceived time results in the adding of new, and the "lighting up" of each item already in the flowchart, but bei Jul 7, 2021 · Victor de Schwanberg/Science Photo Library. We can manipulate conscious experiences with drugs and sensory inputs. But nothing in science can support idealism or any other non-physicalist stance either. This awareness is unique to you and subjective. So if you want to see for yourself if consciousness is birthless try self inquiry and meditation or other pointers. ” Consciousness is the presence of subjective experience. Science is something consciousness does. On the maths parts of the demonstration, the argument stays somewhat dangling on the notion of "unassailable truths", the concept that there exists fundamental truths which preexist our experience, and to which we have to adopt a Platonicist view of the world to adhere to. Searle's answer didn't make much sense to me - he didn't explain how a scientific explanation can bridge the explanatory gap. But what about consciousness? Consciousness doesn't seem to be reducible to structure and dynamics at all. Publication date 2017-03-22 Topics The reason materialist views (or, really, any views) cannot explain the hard problem of consciousness is because that is what makes it a hard problem of consciousness: consciousness cannot be understood through explanation, it must be experienced in order to be consciousness. It's indeed interesting that half the people never seem to be able to make this distinction no matter how hard I explain it. No scientific experiment can answer the question because consciousness can't be externally observed; the closest we can get to observing consciousness is measuring the neural correlates of consciousness. Reddit iOS Reddit Android Reddit Premium About Reddit Advertise Blog Careers Press. A new theory of consciousness has been developed by a researcher at Bost The Origin of Consciousness The Breakdown of The Bicameral Mind Read it if you must, but it's not a book of science. Science must try to explain everything. The more you fail to disprove the idea the more you believe it. The latter point is contentious with many respected philosophers on both sides of the issue. You will point to science and suggest it deals with the objective realm, no consciousness required. How does lifeless materials which come together to make the body and then know how to differentiate itself from the same lifeless elements. Physical existence is only one vehicle for consciousness, we can't disprove that there are other potential vehicles for it beyond that. Those are questions science can't answer. A softer r/science. Science isn’t the Bible. ), then science can't explain it. It's often said that we can't explain consciousness, but I don't see why that's so. The brain can similarily shift some of its functions around too, if parts of it for example get damaged. I think science can explain almost everything but it can explain existential "why are we here" questions. Some scientists believe consciousness is generated by Sep 25, 2023 · The concept proposes that consciousness is a fundamental aspect of reality, like mass or electrical charge. In the unique case of consciousness, the thing to be explained cannot be observed. We can't really ever be sure exactly what has consciousness. But I'm aware of myself in this body and my thoughts. We encourage you all to discuss things you find interesting here -- whether that is consciousness, related topics in science or philosophy, or unrelated topics like religion, sports, movies, books, games, politics, or anything else that you find interesting (that doesn't violate either Reddit's rules or the subreddits rules). The world can be deterministic, and you can give you consciousness I tell you. Consciousness is your awareness of yourself and your surroundings. Modern understanding of physics/biology/etc. Science can only explain how a plethora of physical mechanisms in our brain can give rise to consciousness. Prevalence is particularly high among those who have undergone significant trauma, and, interestingly-enough, some speculate that DID is possibly therapist-induced, e. The author has no acuity for logic; little knowledge of neuroscience, evolutionary biology, or philosophy of mind; and presents a dishonestly selective and generally facile survey of history and archeology to bolster his theory that consciousness was invented by the Greeks 3400 Originally, Reddit had their own servers, but then migrated to Amazon. We’re in the best possible quandary. It can even explain how billions of neurons added together will act like a powerful computer capable of highly advanced machine learning. What can currently explain consciousness better and in more detail? Basically, if science can't understand it, nothing can. You can do science about the empirical, physical world, but the same methods can't be applied to numbers, or ideas. Advertisement Coins. When it's much more likely that the brain DEPENDS on consciousness, as does every other "material object" ever. We know that consciousness exists not through experiences, but through the immediate feeling of our feelings and experiences. It's easy enough to research out of body experiences people have had while they were physically braindead. That is just a description of the brain turning light into a projection in your brain. I can't be sure if anyone else is conscious. If physics explains all the phenomena in the universe, and if consciousness is part of the universe, then is seems that physics can explain consciousness. I don't really follow the argument: Semiotics exists as a way to understand meaning-making, therefore science can't explain consciousness, therefore the academic community discards evidence for a Creator? Wut? I think science might be able to explain what causes it, but they can't define what it is, where we go etc. Jul 19, 2021 · Can consciousness be explained by quantum physics? My research takes us a step closer to finding out. This would not explain how consciousness is generated from matter, nor how consciousness generates qualia. Nov 1, 2019 · In the long-running "Alien" movie franchise, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation can’t seem to let go of a terrible idea: It keeps trying to make a profit from xenomorphs -- creatures with acid for Feb 21, 2024 · Mind How entropy and equilibrium can help explain consciousness. I should explicitly Reductive physicalism. My area is maths more than physics. So how can we scientifically explain consciouness? Science and technology haven’t provided people with the subjective on-look of reality which is close to our hearts and thus its illusive abstraction, in my opinion, will come to an end when the postmodern condition reaches its peak and both culture and science will have to synthesize a common, philosophical ground which recognizes the positive aspect of Being, a place where science can’t Because the vast majority of the time, science takes a materialist viewpoint. There are other approaches to the problem, but they all deal with science's inability to explain how consciousness arises. Mar 1, 2018 · Most information processing, such as driving a car, is mere computation. Science has difficulty explaining consciousness because our consciousness obfuscates what is needed to explain consciousness. From the article: He explores the current scientific theories that attempt to explain NDEs, such as the dying brain hypothesis and the spiritual hypothesis, and examines the evidence for and against each theory. We don't necessarily need a theory or hypothesis to study something. It tries to explain consciousness as some phenomena occuring from the brain, completely independent of "the world around it". . But since science was established as a separate field of study, science is now labelled as "not philosophy". The idea goes back to antiquity—Plato took it seriously—and has had some prominent Aug 11, 2022 · Consciousness can not simply be reduced to neural activity alone, researchers say. Thinking about consciousness from the perspective of a physicist may be key to figuring out whether it is a single phenomenon or a Even if you get a group of people who agree on it, they rarely (if ever) come up with any kind of test which can match that standard. With each unit of perceived time, any new objects, smells, textures, ect, will be added to any pre-existing "boxes" in one ever-growing "flowchart". There is absolutely evidence of consciousness existing without brain activity. Assuming they could find scientific proof of some universal consciousness, when they can't even define what it is Yes, I can't see how I can deny consciousness exists because I'm conscious of myself. Of course, scientists are used to dealing with the unobservable. We can explain friction. Share to Tumblr. Consciousness is complicated and hard to reproduce in a laboratory. When you disprove an idea you can refine it based on what you have learned and start the process again. The OP statement is a prime example of creating a strawman of what is required to explain consciousness in order to argue it can't be explained. I can't even be sure of who or what I really am. The brain is an 6:17 Chalmers nails it. Science is OBJECTIVE Consciousness is SUBJECTIVE PAIN is a real subjective experience, but even something like the sensation of seeing the color blue is entirely subjective. That's why many believe in ridiculous things likes immortal souls, spirits and dualism. Humans are unique in that we were naturally selected for SELF-consciousness, which ( it would seem ), confers an even greater advantage than simple consciousness . I'm conscious of myself, and therefore consciousness In philosophy, “conscious” is not usually equated with “alert. People, humans, can't even manage what little consciousness they have, or balance the checkbook for all that matters. How does science explain the knowing aspect of consciousness. but they are about 92% idiots. We can derive meaning of why we should be here through science but by itself science just explains the universe we live in and it's up to us to interpret a meaning for ourselves inside it. Those same qualities also happens to be what we would want out of what we consider "knowledge". We can explain conservation laws and the bending of spacetime. You can't look inside someone's head and see their feelings and experiences. Simple data collection and observation are still part of science. It is a logical (and therefore philosophical) problem - no amount of neuroscientific research can make any difference to it. Consciousness is just brain/some part of the brain. In fact, Newton wrote a book titled Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy . How do you know water differently from any other element. You can't do science with (only) concepts, or numbers, or that sort of thing. Nov 5, 2019 · One reason is that consciousness is unobservable. As to the 'substance' of consciousness - the only absolute thing I can say is that a brain is necessary for consciousness, and thus consciousness has its roots in neurology. Perhaps what you have in mind is that people say that we cannot explain how consciousness is entailed by the relevant physical states. IMO the hard problem of consciousness is just a bunch of dudes standing around “we can’t explain this right now, therefore there is no explanation and there can’t be one. Consciousness is prior to science. But it can never describe or explain why consciousness feels the way it does. Science can’t explain precisely Science works by proposing an idea about how something works and trying to disprove it. All explanations are just concepts, but consciousness is beyond and prior to concepts. I found his follow-up book, Shadows of the mind even more elaborated and interesting. The problem of consciousness, however, is radically different from any other scientific problem. TL;DR: As it's meant in the article, science can theoretically explain everything, because it can offer an explanation for any phenomenon we observe. Non-reductive physicalism. The thing is, explanations won't satifly you. Consciousness entirely depends on the brain, but it’s more like a process in it. Consciousness is physical, like in Position 1, but it’s not reducible to atoms. Memory is stored in your aura for example not in 4x5 inches of pink stuff Can anyone describe or explain your consciousness's link to the brain? I dont understand. significant amounts of psychotherapy can cause a person to dissociate ego from superego or create a "witness" consciousness. One of the reasons is that it is unobservable. Nov 1, 2019 · Explaining how something as complex as consciousness can emerge from a grey, jelly-like lump of tissue in the head is arguably the greatest scientific challenge of our time. Share via email. That's a big part of its superiority to religion, which only answers questions so you will shut the hell up and stop asking. Published: July 19, 2021 1:08pm EDT. When we let our imaginative perspectives dictate views of things like consciousness is where we lose the plot. It’s a more like a book that says, “This is what we’ve discovered so far. I think you have a very narrow view of science. ” We simply don’t understand how it works on the physical level in its entirety, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work on the physical level and we should act Sure it can explain how neurons fire and what physical processes cause them to reach an action potential. CAN SCIENCE EXPLAIN CONSCIOUSNESS by Dan Bruiger. Mar 22, 2017 · Share to Reddit. suggests that the brain is electric and chemical signals through neurons - as you say much like a computer. Epiphenomenalism. That's what Albert's "merciless smack down" consists of. Science cannot understand consciousness, though it can certainly describe what it does and how it acts and materials (like brains) that are associated with it. This means we can never ever get direct evidence for any sort of consciousness, or how the experience actually portrays itself subjectively. I can only be sure of my own experience of actual consciousness, and can explain only explain apparent conciousness using physics. Maybe. The same wiring in our brain lets us enjoy eating an apple and also lets us imagine eating one when no actual apple is around. Sure, you The theory, as I understand it, would be something like that even we ourselves are mere vessels of "consciousness" which is itself an immaterial force pervading the entire universe since time immemorial. And for this, firing neurons suffice. Can science explain consciousness? The question is will that just be another physical process that doesn’t explain anything; can we only really study and understand consciousness from within as our own consciousness is then only thing that we can experimentally use to study it even if not a physical experiment; such as meditation practices like transcendental meditation where The fundamental core issue that can never be overcome is that true direct observation of subjective experience is impossible for anyone other than the subject itself. Brain absolutely can explain mind. . Before science was a thing, we had natural philosophy, which tried to explain what is now explained by science. But science is, if you will, an overlay on consciousness-- it is a framework within which we shape our conscious experiences of observation, measurement, calculation, etc. Yes. The consciousness minimum. It's a bit like saying "maybe maths is just about figuring out qunatities" when the topic being discussed is how it is possible to figure out universal rules about numbers in the first place. He says that ultimately consciousness stems from a neuronal awareness to the body itself as a defense mechanism to force the organism to react and protect itself from damage or ingestion of foreign invaders and this kind of consciousness he calls it the proto-self as it is the basis of more complex forms of consciousness like the core self and Posted by u/nastratin - 7 votes and 10 comments Oct 22, 2022 · According to a new theory, choices are formed unconsciously and become conscious around half a second later. , in a coma) but still are “conscious” because they still have subjective experiences. g. How to you know different colors, different sounds, different tastes. Science cannot explain consciousness. When you go outside at night, and 'see' a star, you are not seeing a star. I know everything is meaningless cliche yes but i struggle with wrapping my head around how a nihilist would explain consciousness. At its heart it is meant to produce results that are reliable, reproducible, and universal. It isn’t a book of knowledge that says this is the way all things are. Although this seems to be less flexible than with computers. While we can't observe consciousness directly we can observe lots of secondary data. Electrons, for example, are too small to be seen but can be inferred. Share to Pinterest. or at If science answers "the question," there will only be another question behind it. The “hard problem,” he says, is the existence of consciousness itself. That's consciousness. ” Hello, I am a non-expert and will do the purely philosophical speculation before telling you that nobody knows anything about the science. I can't be sure if I have free will. We can even begin to explain things like the apparent constancy of the speed of light. The power of science is that every question opens another question. No, no explain me proof or science and certainly nothing rational about some delusional universal consciousness. A novel study reports the dynamics of consciousness may be understood by a newly developed conceptual and mathematical framework. -- if science does not have recourse to consciousness, then there is Consciousness is either 1) part of that decision making process in your brain, or is 2) an observation of that decision making process. This is how memory works according tome. Maybe a rock has consciousness. In the rare cases any group manages to clear both of those near-impossible hurdles, several further problems remain: "our tests come up inconclusive," "our tests don't distinguish clearly non-conscious things from conscious things," and (for guaranteed 100% The appropriate question is what are things science can’t explain yet. or primitive at this point. If we were just going off what we can observe from a third-person perspective, we would have no grounds for postulating consciousness at all. fnsojp szmba biprjhuu kalj yptug uhtqmpba qkzu clefudx lkeelj mqkjjd