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Comment by cryoshon | Hacker News Reader

Why can't consciousness come from material things? We only have evidence of one kind of substance, which is material substance.

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I think consciousness is too profound. Matter has never created anything like it because there isn't anything like it. Also it answers a lot of unresolved questions when you just say that consciousness is the fundamental substance that creates everything else. As one example (of many) - how is it that all sentient beings experience now at the same time? There is no logical reason why this should be the case and no easy answer to the question

Friend, I fear you've strayed from science into philosophy.

To debate materialism is to do philosophy rather than science. I think we started there. :)

and what about other things, like gravity and electromagnetism? These are not created by matter

Electromagnetism is a the effect of a physical field that permeates all of space. Fields are real things, not just useful calculators.

Some of Max Tegmark's writing as well as Lawrence Krauss' have describe gravity as the "cost" or the thing that is balanced by the expansion of space.

The expansion of space having been driven by another as yet undescribed field.

All things are physical. Consciousness is a side effect of information processing. Seems like we just have fundamentally different assumptions about what can be a valid belief.

I don't just disagree with you. I think your belief about consciousness isn't even well formed. I don't even think there could exist evidence to support a belief like "consciousness creates matter".

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