Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?

Is the mind the same as the body? What is consciousness? Can machines have it?

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Greta
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Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?

Post by Greta »

Hobbes' Choice wrote:
Greta wrote:One one level I see brains per se as just one more example of nature's tendency for relatively homogeneous material to form areas of concentration as they cool - particlisation. Atoms, gas clouds, stars, planets, galaxies, galactic clusters, cells, multicellular structures, encephalisation, colonies, cities, institutions ... in each case some area of greater concentration starts building up more rapidly than the surrounding environment and in time new properties emerge from the buildup.
The propensity to complexity is not inherent in the general but in the specific cases that we see due to the activity thus produced. I think this is of a different kind of matter concentrations to atoms in space, in which the propensity to coalesce is inherent in gravity and general principles.
Actually, the propensity toward complexity is completely inherent to our reality, hence the universe is still no longer simple ultra-dense, ultra-hot plasma. That's why the Earth has life, multicellular organisms and so forth rather than the melted rock of the Hadean. The universe is cooling and, up to a point, as things cool down they become more ordered.

The mechanisms are obviously different, but greater order - greater information density - demonstrably results in emergent phenomena, as does the concentration of mass does.
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Hobbes' Choice
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Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?

Post by Hobbes' Choice »

Greta wrote:
Hobbes' Choice wrote:
Greta wrote:One one level I see brains per se as just one more example of nature's tendency for relatively homogeneous material to form areas of concentration as they cool - particlisation. Atoms, gas clouds, stars, planets, galaxies, galactic clusters, cells, multicellular structures, encephalisation, colonies, cities, institutions ... in each case some area of greater concentration starts building up more rapidly than the surrounding environment and in time new properties emerge from the buildup.
The propensity to complexity is not inherent in the general but in the specific cases that we see due to the activity thus produced. I think this is of a different kind of matter concentrations to atoms in space, in which the propensity to coalesce is inherent in gravity and general principles.
Actually, the propensity toward complexity is completely inherent to our reality, .
No - everything leads to entropy, as anyone knows.

The end game of the universe is its 'heat death'. Complexity is tender, temporary and fleeting.
Walker
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Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?

Post by Walker »

dup
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Walker
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Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?

Post by Walker »

Hobbes' Choice wrote:Nothing to do with dolphins.
I don’t think it ever is about dolphins, although dolphins would disagree until they fly and parrots live at sea.

You know, people act like they are going to live forever. Have you ever considered why, beyond calling people idiots, or morons, or delusional? Because, people are aware that it does end. And people do act like it does not.

Picture this … the plane is going down and there’s one page left in the book that you are reading. Do you finish reading the book?

Well, the plane is going down. And the house is on fire. How much reading is enough?

Increasing entropy, decreasing entropy, closed system, open system, order arising from disorder, evolution, apparent contradictions, blah blah blah. This is pretty basic stuff.

I’ll leave you to explain what can be found in books, if that’s what you’re up to.

:)
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Greta
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Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?

Post by Greta »

Hobbes' Choice wrote:
Greta wrote:
Hobbes' Choice wrote: The propensity to complexity is not inherent in the general but in the specific cases that we see due to the activity thus produced. I think this is of a different kind of matter concentrations to atoms in space, in which the propensity to coalesce is inherent in gravity and general principles.
Actually, the propensity toward complexity is completely inherent to our reality, .
No - everything leads to entropy, as anyone knows.

The end game of the universe is its 'heat death'. Complexity is tender, temporary and fleeting.
That's just common knowledge, but maybe all that happens in between the BB and the hypothesised heat death of the universe is also be worthy of consideration as inherent to reality?

Further, "heat death" is a hypothesis that has attracted a surprising amount of faith given the may problems with the standard model. In a 14b year-old universe with predicted star formation continuing for another trillion years, "heat death" assumes that not much unexpected will happen in over a period about seven times longer than the current age of the universe. The universe's history suggests otherwise.
osgart
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Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?

Post by osgart »

has to be. It's a marvelous piece of engineering .balance,coordination,sensory input,motion control, reaction response, hierarchical function, .

we are more the energy in the brain than the brain itself.
Viveka
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Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?

Post by Viveka »

I would say the universe is the mos complex object in the universe. :)
RustyBert
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Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?

Post by RustyBert »

How many other objects in the universe, not counting earthly living thing's brains, have you observed?
Ramu
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Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?

Post by Ramu »

Its a very complex organ. However the brain doesn't actually exist metaphysically.. Where is this so called brain occurring? There needn't be anything occurring behind the scenes. Reality doesn't need an explanation. It just is.
seeds
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Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?

Post by seeds »

Ramu wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 3:18 pm ...Reality doesn't need an explanation. It just is.
Hi Ramu (and welcome to the forum :)).

I strongly disagree with your statement in that it appears to be nothing more than a surrendering response to the seemingly impenetrable mystery of the why and how of our existence.
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Ramu
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Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?

Post by Ramu »

Hi and thank you for your nice welcome. :D Existence itself is anecdotal. There is only first person subjective. Even though science has created 3rd person objective (for consensus), what's forgotten is that its still occurring within first person subjective. Always!! The materialist paradigm takes a lot for granted. So if all this that I experience is occurring in a brain, then where is the brain occurring? Inside another brain??
seeds
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Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?

Post by seeds »

Ramu wrote: Sat Jul 21, 2018 3:11 pm So if all this that I experience is occurring in a brain, then where is the brain occurring? Inside another brain??
The very fact that you are asking the above questions immediately counters your prior declaration...
Ramu wrote: Sat Jul 21, 2018 3:11 pm Reality doesn't need an explanation.
...for clearly, reality does indeed need an explanation.

And the point is that simply shrugging and insisting that reality “just is,” comes off as just a weak and unimaginative surrendering to the difficulty of the mystery.
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Ramu
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Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?

Post by Ramu »

The mystery is solved. Its right in front of you. However actualized.org is a great place to learn about spiritual enlightenment and non-duality. In short, there needn't be anything behind the scenes to explain reality. There is no external reality. There is just reality. What would it be external to? The thing is you view yourself separate from reality. You Are reality. You ARE consciousness. Consciousness doesn't happen in the brain. It is NOT an epiphenomenon. Consciousness is first order because it is the "container" in which everything happens.
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QuantumT
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Re: Do you regard the human brain as the most complex object in the universe?

Post by QuantumT »

A human brain is often compared to a super (quantum) computer.

They both have one thing in common: They can contain a whole universe within them. Maybe even several. But the brain has an advantage: It can make a computer, but a computer cannot make a brain.

So yes, the human brain is the most complex object in the universe, that we know of!

Consciousness is the greatest achievement of this universe. Or whoever might be responsible for it.
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