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Comment by asow92 | Hacker News Reader

Are we part of the universe? Check. Are we conscious? Check? (probably yes). Does that make the universe transitively conscious? Partially at least, I suppose, yes it does. As far as the universe as a whole being conscious: Latency is problem, but when you're the universe I imagine you've got a lot of time on your hands.

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As far as i can see it, to be conscious is to have a subject experience of reality and (this is i am sure about yet) to have some sense of purpose (however mundane).

To talk about the universe being conscious in this sense, seems to be meaningless to me. I get this strange feeling that we are trying to force something that is vastly mysterious (numinous, not divine) into our world view of how lifeforms work on earth.

Reminds me of a fascinating discussion with Richard Dawkins from a while ago. If you can ignore the pseudo-scientific babble from Deepak Chopra and the annoying host, Dawkins makes some deeply interesting points worth thinking about.

https://youtu.be/BiwLrxPb1fE?t=16m12s

"In principle, some purely physical systems that are not biological or organic may also be conscious.”

The article is talking less about "does the Universe contain consciousness?" but more about "can non-biological things have consciousness?"

The author quotes a scientist who thinks stars that emit jets in a single direction might be doing so consciously. If that's the case, then the scientist raises the question if other non-biological things in the universe might be conscious.

It sounds like no one is taking this idea seriously, but some guy wants to test it just to rule it out.

> Latency is problem, but when you're the universe I imagine you've got a lot of time on your hands.

Best sentence I've read all month

How can you be sure that you are concious and it's not just a usable abstraction running in your software?

We can't, but this is just playing with the definition of conscious. To be more precise, the only thing we can be sure of is the phenomenon of consciousness. The true cause of it will always be a mystery.

I am a strange loop.

Is there a universe outside of our consciousness? This cannot be proven, so if it is to be believed, it must be a matter of faith.

Consciousness is the only thing we can be certain of.

Can we be certain of consciousness? How can we be certain that what we perceive as reality isn't some demon feeding sensory information to our brain?

That would still be consciousness--or call it 'perception' if you like. But yes, objectively speaking, this is as likely to be the case as any other explanation.

We can be certain of - "something's going on". That's about as far as we can take it, but it's something that isn't nothing.

It can be proven. Look down at your navel. Did you know about that lint? It was outside of your consciousness.

Maybe that lint was it, but probably not.

That doesn't prove it - maybe you just decided there was lint there when you looked down.

I often think of GE Moore when I see this argument: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_is_one_hand

That argument simply assumes its conclusion by arbitrarily labelling hands as 'external'.

The 'existence' of our hands is perceived by our senses and filtered through consciousness. There is no way to prove that they actually exist outside of our minds.

Things that cannot be "proven" still can have vastly different probabilities, according to prior observations.

There are no observations that are not products of consciousness, so there are no prior observations in this case.

I think therefore I am?

I think, therefore I avoid vacuous statements like "I am therefore I am"; moreover, I think I am.

It's raining, therefore it is

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