Why consciousness is personal/local: A challenge for materialism

[bahman]

The universe is constituted of many parts. There is however one process that describes the evolution of whole since all parts are interacting with each other. This means that there should be a single consciousness if we relate consciousness to the motion of parts. Instead, we observe that consciousness is personal and local. How do you resolve this problem?

[Dimebag]

The universe is constituted of many parts. There is however one process that describes the evolution of whole since all parts are interacting with each other. This means that there should be a single consciousness if we relate consciousness to the motion of parts. Instead, we observe that consciousness is personal and local. How do you resolve this problem?

By consciousness you mean a self that knows itself and others.

The universe is itself one. The parts are like purturbations of a singular field. The purturbations are arbitrary but only meaningful to us.

The idea of distinct things is due to a mind which separates things from other things.

The universe is not separate from itself. There is no subject/object distinction necessary for consciousness.

Consciousness requires a distinction between subject (the substrate) and object (the purturbations in the substrate).

For such a distinction there must be reflection, or mind. For there to be mind, there must be a model of a self, distinct from the substrate, which represents the whole, and acts as a surrogate for the substrate.

There is first division between things in the substrate, or pattern recognition, but there must be a division in the substrate, to recognise those differences.

An organism with a brain creates an internal substrate which is a reflection of the universal substrate. This internal substrate is a nested substrate, like having a virtual machine on a computer.

The internal substrate further divides into a self differentiator. Differentiating self and not self. The patterns which are recognised are compared and contrasted, sorted etc. some of the patterns are of the organisms body, and become identified as self. Other patterns are received external to the body, and are deemed not self.

With that distinction in place, differentiation can take place and consciousness can occur. Reflective consciousness builds off of the more basic differentiation through a meta cognition of knowing of knowing, a looping back of the results of consciousness to its input.

Reflective consciousness also utilises memory, which solidifies consciousness into a narrative, allowing thoughts, past, present and future thought or imagination. A recording of events in a mental spacetime.

None of that is possible without an organism with a brain, body and senses. Consciousness is unique to organisms. Contentless, reflectionless, existence is its absence.

[bahman]

The universe is constituted of many parts. There is however one process that describes the evolution of whole since all parts are interacting with each other. This means that there should be a single consciousness if we relate consciousness to the motion of parts. Instead, we observe that consciousness is personal and local. How do you resolve this problem?

By consciousness you mean a self that knows itself and others.

No by consciousness I mean experience.

The universe is itself one. The parts are like purturbations of a singular field. The purturbations are arbitrary but only meaningful to us.

The idea of distinct things is due to a mind which separates things from other things.

There is no mind in materialism. There are only material and consciousness.

The universe is not separate from itself. There is no subject/object distinction necessary for consciousness.

Consciousness requires a distinction between subject (the substrate) and object (the purturbations in the substrate).

For such a distinction there must be reflection, or mind. For there to be mind, there must be a model of a self, distinct from the substrate, which represents the whole, and acts as a surrogate for the substrate.

There is no mind in materialism. Materialism is monism.

There is first division between things in the substrate, or pattern recognition, but there must be a division in the substrate, to recognise those differences.

An organism with a brain creates an internal substrate which is a reflection of the universal substrate. This internal substrate is a nested substrate, like having a virtual machine on a computer.

The internal substrate further divides into a self differentiator. Differentiating self and not self. The patterns which are recognised are compared and contrasted, sorted etc. some of the patterns are of the organisms body, and become identified as self. Other patterns are received external to the body, and are deemed not self.

With that distinction in place, differentiation can take place and consciousness can occur. Reflective consciousness builds off of the more basic differentiation through a meta cognition of knowing of knowing, a looping back of the results of consciousness to its input.

Reflective consciousness also utilises memory, which solidifies consciousness into a narrative, allowing thoughts, past, present and future thought or imagination. A recording of events in a mental spacetime.

None of that is possible without an organism with a brain, body and senses. Consciousness is unique to organisms. Contentless, reflectionless, existence is its absence.

OK, we have many brains, and brains are needed for consciousness. This means that we should have a single consciousness in the locations of our brains. In another world, I should be conscious of your thoughts and vice versa. Why? Because there is only one process involved in the universe.