I doubt that anyone can deny that humans, and some animals, have a self-image. As demonstrated by Descartes, my reasoning Self is the only thing I know for sure. But, is it a will'o'wisp of fleeting imagination, or something more durable that can survive death? Is the Soul a gift of God, or of Evolution? Is it a spark of divinity, or merely a tool for genetic survival? These are some of the Essential questions that I was looking for insight on. — Gnomon
As demonstrated by Descartes, my reasoning Self is the only thing I know for sure. But, is it a will'o'wisp of fleeting imagination, or something more durable that can survive death? Is the Soul a gift of God, or of Evolution? Is it a spark of divinity, or merely a tool for genetic survival? — Gnomon
Thoughts, presented in Enformationism terms, inspired by your comments :If our 'self', through brain development, is a combination of 'some things old, some things new', mentally and physically, and consciousness is not a material aspect of that, it seems logical that the immaterial portion of the contributions (that which is 'experienced' through interaction with otherness) would revert to being immaterial when the 'material' is sloughed off. — Mapping the Medium
Since Consciousness is a process, it can start and stop. When Consciousness stops, the Self/Soul dis-organizes, and the body dies. But the energy (EnFormAction) is always conserved. It continues to flow through the world. So, you could say that the Information that formed the Self/Soul re-enters the main stream of EnFormAction (G*D-Mind in action). Like a drop in the ocean, it is no longer a distinct object. — Gnomon
See my response to Mapping the Medium.In my view, many intuitions about soul will most likely have some kind of scientifically derived validity, or else where would the pervasiveness of these ideas have come from in the first place? — Enrique
Yes. In the infancy of humanity, the concept of an immaterial Soul was a serious philosophical explanation for both Animation and for Action-at-a-Distance. But the task for modern philosophy is to reconcile those ancient rationalizations with the empirical evidence uncovered by Science. Which is exactly why I have developed the Enformationism thesis.We've had satisfying ideals for millennia! — Enrique
Don't overthink it. The intended goal may be general, but the final outcome will be specific. — Gnomon
That example misses the point of "aboutness". — Gnomon
Entention (aim, purpose, motivation) must come before Completion (conclusion, resolution, realization). If intent and goal coexist, then there's no need to move toward the target. — Gnomon
I assume you are referring to the programmers of mundane Evolutionary Programming, But, did I say anything about “no idea at all”? In my analogy between Intelligent Evolution and Genetic Design, I indicated that the designer (human or deity) used the heuristic search process, specifically because there was no viable path directly to the goal. In the “evolved antenna” design, the barrier was computing power. So, they established parameters to be met, and let their artificial intelligence computers “stumble” upon the optimum solution by a process of trial & error. Our Programmer was a wise-wizard, in that he started before the beginning. It's called a "program" : a plan of action.'wise fool' . . . They don't usually start from "no idea at all" as far as I can tell — Siti
An elephant who doesn't recognize himself in a mirror? :razz:what is an elephant with no 'elephant-aboutness'? — Siti
This is where we typically part ways. You assume that all “events” occur in space & time : the existing evolving reality. But, if intent & goal (cause & effect) occupy the same space & time, what's the point? They may of course occupy the same time-line, which may be what you have in mind. But my Ententional Agent is supposed to be outside space-time; which I know does not compute for you. Yet, Eternity and Infinity are common concepts in human discourse, and they are assumed to be non-real, like the so-called Imaginary Numbers & Zero & Infinity of mathematics . Which is true, because they exist only in what I call Ideality : the Mind of G*D. In the MoG, there are no “mental poles” or “physical poles”, because G*D is unitary, holistic, non-dual. But those are just qualities that I attribute to "something that is not present in space-time", due to my Intentional Stance. It's a hypothesis, not a belief system. Did I mention that my G*D is a mathematician and a metaphysician? :smile:but the 'ententionalities' are (I am suggesting) the 'mental poles' of the emerging realities - inseparable from and necessarily coexistent with the 'physical pole' substrates on which they (ententionalities) 'supervene' — Siti
did I say anything about “no idea at all”? — Gnomon
But this is what I don't get - how could it have been known that it was even possible to "stumble upon" any solution - let alone an optimum one - how could it have been known that semi-autonomous intelligent avatars were even a possibility? As soon as the question is asked, the possibilities are limited - and if God already knew that such an outcome was possible, he presumably had no need to experiment. How could God entertain himself by thinking thoughts he had already thought - because in your scheme, I can't see how there can possibly be any thoughts that are not God's thoughts? If the point of "the play" is that the outcome cannot be known in advance, then God did not know - indeed God would seem to be profoundly ignorant - completely unaware that the process could possibly have progressed beyond the level of bacteria - or even beyond inanimate matter for that matter. And if he did know that, then at least a significant part of the story was pre-written before the "heuristic" playwright set pen to paper - wasn't it?In the Intelligent Evolution theory, I postulate that the Programmer had no entention of creating dumb creatures like Adam & Eve, but merely had the “idea” of creating semi-autonomous intelligent creatures --- little avatars for entertainment. So, S/he simply designed a process that would “stumble” upon an optimum solution --- within the constraints of space & time, and natural laws --- by learning from its own mistakes. The design criteria & parameters are assumed to be working via Natural Selection. So the final goal was specified only in terms of a problem description. And the zig-zag path to that goal was what Hegel called “The Dialectic Process”, as contrasted with the “Didactic Process” of Intelligent Design. The Process is the Product. Playing the game is the point, not the final score. "The play's the thing". — Gnomon
You assume that all “events” occur in space & time — Gnomon
if intent & goal (cause & effect) occupy the same space & time, what's the point? — Gnomon
Since I don't have any experience with infinity (no beginning, no end), I can only guess what the possibilities are, but by definition they would be unlimited. For example, the Number Line of mathematics is presumed to have no beginning and no end. So, I figured that we had a practical real-world hint about*1 unlimited potential of the values that the human mind has a limited grasp of. Hence, to paraphrase your question, is the Number Line "no number at all", or all possible values? In Philosophy, "Value" is not just sequential position, but significance to a mind. And Mind is the ultimate Ontological problem.No you didn't, I did. I suggested that the "primordial" IDEA - i.e. the starting point of the "process of creation" - if it were truly unlimited (as in an unlimited 'pool of potentiality') - would be exactly equivalent to "no idea at all". — Siti
I feel your puzzlement. :smile:But this is what I don't get - how could it have been known that it was even possible to "stumble upon" any solution - let alone an optimum one — Siti
How do you know that no cause & effect events happen outside of space-time? Is that an unfounded assumption, or is it based on evidence? Don't you assume that the Big Bang was caused by some event prior to the emergence of our little pocket of space-time?None of it happens outside of space and time. Is there any compelling reason to assume that any other cause-effect processes are any different? — Siti
If you can entertain the notion of an infinite regression of multiverses, zillions of mindless atoms bouncing around like un-aimed billiard balls will inevitably give rise to intelligent life - infinitely many times...and that's kind of my point - if you are invoking infinity, eternity or unlimited potentiality (or whatever) - there is absolutely no need for an intelligent creator - if you are invoking an intelligent creator, there is no need for infinity, eternity or unlimited potentiality (or whatever). To have both is introduce infinite redundancy.If you can entertain the notion of an infinite regression of Multiverses, it shouldn't be too hard to imagine that everything possible has been tried, at least in principle. So that is a deep pool of "statistical significance" to draw upon. But to make it more plausible for my thesis, I assume that a combination of the mental trait of Information (to know) and the physical power of Energy (to enform) is even more likely to predict the outcome of a chain of changes, than zillions of mindless atoms bouncing around like un-aimed billiard balls. — Gnomon
No I don't - personally, I think it is the height of absurdity to suggest that the most significant event could possibly have happened "outside of time" - no time, no change, no change, no ... anything ... tick, tock, tick tock - nothing happens in no time - how could it?How do you know that no cause & effect events happen outside of space-time? Is that an unfounded assumption, or is it based on evidence? Don't you assume that the Big Bang was caused by some event prior to the emergence of space-time? — Gnomon
Actually, the notions of G*D and Multiverse are both infinitely redundant. But if you accept the physicists' Multiverse theory, you still have no explanation for the Metaphysical Ontological problem : how did Mind arise from Matter? What is it about Matter that causes Ideas, Imagination, and Love? If you don't care about such immaterial ideas, there is no need for a theory of an Infinite Enformer. But I know you love me. :cool:if you are invoking infinity, eternity or unlimited potentiality (or whatever) - there is absolutely no need for an intelligent creator - if you are invoking an intelligent creator, there is no need for infinity, eternity or unlimited potentiality (or whatever). To have both is introduce infinite redundancy. — Siti
Are you talking about Clock Time or Block Time? The latter is Everything Forever. Can you wrap your mind around that? Your incredulity about Eternity is because it is counter-intuitive. But then, Quantum Theory is counter-intuitive. So, what?No I don't - personally, I think it is the height of absurdity to suggest that the most significant event could possibly have happened "outside of time" - no time, no change, no change, no ... anything ... tick, tock, tick tock - nothing happens outside of time - how could it? — Siti
Well if I knew that, I wouldn't be wasting my time in The Philosophy Forum, I'd be on my way to Stockholm to collect my Nobel Prize...but I prefer to think of mind (or better mind-ing) as what matter does - at least when its not just bouncing around like zillions of un-aimed billiard balls - which is not what matter does anyway - at least not when it is clumped together into something as complex as - well - a mindless molecule...let alone a hairless ape. As to exactly how it works - I have no idea at all (which kind of takes us back to where we started). Actually, I do have an idea - I think "mind" is essentially the relational part of the "process-relational" way the universe seems (to me) to work...you have stuff - and it "minds"...i.e. it relates to other bits of stuff - and the stuff, and its "mind(-ing)" vary in complexity from the relatively simple and isolated (like molecules of gas in interstellar space) to the incredibly complex and interconnected (like the immense colony of living cells that form a human being). That "relating" I prefer to call "experience" and the fact that it goes down to the deepest, most fundamental levels of physical reality - e.g. when three quarks encounter each other they 'know' exactly what to do - form a proton - how so if they are truly "mindless" - i.e. how does a world characterized at the fundamental level by random mindlessness produce order? The answer (according to my imagination) is that each bit of stuff 'experiences' (relates to) the world in ways that correspond to the way that very similar bits of stuff 'experience' the world. These regularities of 'experience' (relating) become the 'order' of the universe (which we characterize as "laws of nature" or "laws of physics"). When you get increasingly complex networks of bits of stuff - like human beings - then you get lots of regularities, and lots of unique combos of "experiential realities" (relatings) which make each one of us unmistakably and essentially human and yet as distinguishable from one another as chalk and cheese. Very few of us would be able to distinguish one bacterium from another - even to identify at species level requires special training and expertise. Its a complexity thing - and if one thinks of "mind" as an aspect of reality that is present at the most fundamental levels, it is much easier to imagine how it gets to be so complex at higher levels of reality. I prefer to call this idea by David Griffin's term "pan-experientialism" - some call it "pan-psychism" but I don't like that term because its too easily associated with new-age nonsense and it kind of implies that things like electrons have a "psyche" or are somehow "conscious" - I don't think that, but I am pretty sure they do relate to and experience (at a very rudimentary and fundamental level) the world around them - and that, in a much more complicated way, is what the human "mind" does - relates to and experiences the world - is it not?Actually, the notions of G*D and Multiverse are both infinitely redundant. But if you accept the physicists' Multiverse theory, you still have no explanation for the Metaphysical Ontological problem : how did Mind arise from Matter? What is it about Matter that causes Ideas, Imagination, and Love? — Gnomon
I think so - Block Time is a result of treating time as a fourth dimension - effectively, a sequence of geometric points in time in which everything that will ever "happen" has in fact already "happened", and the events that are yet future, well, we just haven't reached "there" yet. A bit too Calvinistic for my liking - I prefer to think that what we do actually makes a difference - however small. I have no idea how time might have worked "before" the Big Bang, but I'm pretty convinced that cause still preceded effect. If not, then there is no hope of us making any sense of anything prior to or beyond the universe as we (barely) know it.Are you talking about Clock Time or Block Time? The latter is Everything Forever. Can you wrap your mind around that? — Gnomon
Yes. That is why Enformationism attempts to explain why Matter (noun) has the ability to Live (verb) and to Mind (adverb), not in the technical details of "How", but in the philosophical sense of "Why". Information is all about Relationships, including geometrical and meaningful. My broad definition of Mind is that it's what the Brain does, its function. Yet Function is both a mathematical relationship, and a meaningful correlation. And Information is the common denominator, both abstract and personal. But materialistic science has no answer to the how mathematics and thermodynamics in nature give rise to consciousness and meaning in Culture. So, like many others in recent years, I have looked into the ancient notion of Panpsychism, to see if the dual nature of Information can help to explain how and why Darwinian winnowing of random mutations can produce creatures of both directed Energy (life) and purposeful Entention (mind).Actually, I do have an idea - I think "mind" is essentially the relational part of the "process-relational" way the universe seems (to me) to work...you have stuff - and it "minds"...i.e. it relates to other bits of stuff — Siti
I agree. That New Age nonsense, such as the psychic-power of crystals, was also a motivation for my using the term "Information" as opposed to "consciousness" to describe those "occasions of experience". But I also avoid the term "experience" for the same reason : it implies that atoms have a personal perspective. Instead, Information functions more like un-intentional Energy at the lower levels of reality. Only in more highly-evolved forms does Energy become Animation, then Entention & Experience. Information is simply abstract mathematical ratios and relationships, that also function as physical Hot or Cold (density of energy), and have evolved into metaphysical feelings of Hotness or Coldness (occasions of experience).I prefer to call this idea by David Griffin's term "pan-experientialism" - some call it "pan-psychism" but I don't like that term because its too easily associated with new-age nonsense — Siti
I understand why you find the notion of Timelessness and Spacelessness absurd. That's because it's counter-intuitive. We humans live immersed in a sea of time and space, so, like the proverbial fish in the water, we take our environment for granted. But science is continually, opening our eyes to features of reality that were once unimaginable.I have no idea how time might have worked "before" the Big Bang, but I'm pretty convinced that cause still preceded effect. — Siti
Don't give-up hope. Science is propelled by human Reason, which can imagine things-not-seen, and tie disparate facts into convergent concepts. Just as materialists place their hope for a Theory of Everything on an imaginary random Multiverse or Omniverse. I have staked my hope for a consistent worldview upon an imaginary ententional Enformer. In both cases, it's just a hypothesis, but only the latter directly addresses the human concerns for Meaning and Life and Love. Not Mind from Matter, but Mind from Mind, as cause & effect. :nerd:If not, then there is no hope of us making any sense of anything prior to or beyond the universe as we (barely) know it. — Siti
I also avoid the term "experience" for the same reason : it implies that atoms have a personal perspective. — Gnomon
Thanks, I've downloaded a copy of the Medium.com article, and will check it out.Since we're talking about how organic matter produces mind and plugging our blogs, I've been giving consideration to exactly this subject, and you guys should read my essay The Origins and Evolution of Perception in Organic Matter. I think it could be a good supplement to the discussion. — Enrique
Again, to use "experience" for spatio-temporal relationships seems to be referring to an unqualified [no qualia] event, with numerical instead of meaningful values. But the term "experience" can denote simply "an inscrutable cause-effect event", or it can refer to the "conscious knowledge of that event".The individual nature of THIS or THAT atom consists of the spatio-temporal relationships that this or that atom 'experiences' (and has 'experienced') with the other stuff around it. — Siti
Well I did say there considerable gaps to be filled in - qualia clearly arise at somewhat higher levels of complexity - but fundamentally, are they not still relational aspects of our experience of the world? Is that flower "red" because a human mind has unilaterally determined that it is red? Or is it "red" because that is how we relate (and have related) to other apparently "red" things? The 'meaning' arises at least partly from the essential nature of the thing observed (i.e. the kind of atoms and molecules it is made of and the frequencies of radiation they absorb) and partly from the conventional (relational) categorizations we have learned in the relational process of life. Its "red-ness" is neither uniquely our own idea nor a disembodied one that attaches to the object on observation. It is a process-relational aspect of the intersection of the mental and physical poles of the realities of the flower and the observer. The flower (presumably) has no conception of its own 'redness' but its material reality, in part at least, confers redness upon it (in the eye of the beholder) by virtue of its (internal and external) spatio-temporal (chemical and electromagnetic) relationships to the world. And the observer 'conceives' of its redness, in part at least, by virtue of the spatio-temporal relationships within and between the sensory apparatus and the material reality being observed.Again, to use "experience" for spatio-temporal relationships seems to be referring to an unqualified [no qualia] event, with numerical instead of meaningful values. But the term "experience" can denote simply "an inscrutable cause-effect event", or it can refer to the "conscious knowledge of that event".
The mechanical (cause-effect) occurrence is what Materialism considers fundamental, while most humans feel that the significance (cause-effect-meaning) of the event is more essential... — Gnomon
Right - there are only two options - eternal First Cause or infinite regress. Infinite regress is hard to get the head around, but an eternal first cause that is (at least before the start of 'causation') timeless and changeless. I find that notion utterly absurd - how can something changeless be a reasonable explanation for the most momentous change imaginable? So I'm left with infinite regress - time and change, cause and effect - unbeginning and unending - or at least if it ever did end (and become timeless and changeless) what could possibly set it going again? But it could not have begun - a beginning to change is impossible.Traditionally, that conscious experience was the purview of Spiritualism, and is associated with ghosts. Which is why I prefer to call it Enformationism, which is explanatory for the natural world, but remains neutral toward supernatural explanations, with one exception : EnFormAction is causation, and must either have an eternal First Cause, or an infinite mechanism of causation. — Gnomon
Are you sure its humanistic - or unjustifiably anthropocentric?Since we don't normally associate consciousness with cog & wheel mechanisms, a Mind of some kind seems to be a better metaphor. I think of it as a more humanistic worldview. — Gnomon
This is absolutely key because it temporalizes all of reality at the most fundamental level and it has to if experience is to be fundamental because experiences cannot happen in no time (i.e. at points in time). Atoms do not exist at points in time, they, like everything else, exist during intervals of time (no matter how small) and that does indeed mean that there is "something that it is like" to be an atom (more precisely, to be this or that atom) just as Thomas Nagel famously argued that there was "something that it is like" to be a bat...no matter how different and inaccessible to us it might be, that "something-that-it-is-like"-ness, is, in a very real sense, WHAT the atom IS. — Siti
Yes. Qualia are relational aspects of reality, but not in an abstract geometric sense. Feelings are relational to a unique being, who experiences energy inputs and outputs just like any material object. But unlike most of the material world, some lumps of matter have a self-image, and an imperative for self-preservation, that causes them to evaluate energy inputs personally, rather than neutrally. As I see it, the common denominator between an atoms's "experience" and a man's feelings is generic Information : the power to enform --- to cause change. An atom's internal change, due to energy input, involves shifting electron orbits. but a man's internal change, due to information input, involves a memory of the event (experience), and an evaluation of the significance of the event for the person's future well-being (meaning).Well I did say there considerable gaps to be filled in - qualia clearly arise at somewhat higher levels of complexity - but fundamentally, are they not still relational aspects of our experience of the world? — Siti
I resolved that no-place-to-turn-around-in-infinity problem, by making a distinction between physical change, and meta-physical change. Physical events clearly occur in space & time. But where do meta-physical events occur? When you change your mind, is it in four dimensions? Donald Hoffman has offered a useful metaphor for this dilemma, but it is a brain-twister. You might even call it "utterly absurd". He makes an analogy between space-time as "appearances", and Ideality as the ultimate eternal reality. IOW, Common Sense reality is an illusion, that evolved to enhance fitness for brainy creatures. Can you wrap your head around that non-sense? Can you grok Kant's Transcendental Idealism?Infinite regress is hard to get the head around, but an eternal first cause that is (at least before the start of 'causation') timeless and changeless. I find that notion utterly absurd - how can something changeless be a reasonable explanation for the most momentous change imaginable? — Siti
It's both. My thesis is humanistic in that it gives preference to the human perspective over the presumably omniscient and impersonal view of Materialism. And it's anthro-centric relative to the non-human majority of Nature. Whether that's justifiable depends on where you place humans in the hierarchy of Natural Evolution --- at the top, in the center, at the bottom, irrelevant? Personally, I place people at the pinnacle (temporarily). But the king of the mountain can always be toppled by the next challenger. Are Dolphins plotting a take-over? :wink:Are you sure its humanistic - or unjustifiably anthropocentric? — Siti
I have read your article on the Evolution of Perception, and it seems to be heading in the same general direction as my own musings on the Emergence of Consciousness. Apparently, you are much better informed on the technical details of Quantum Physics. My blog post on The EnFormAction Hypothesis has a similar underlying assumption, but makes no attempt to get into technicalities that are way above my pay grade.Since we're talking about how organic matter produces mind and plugging our blogs, I've been giving consideration to exactly this subject, and you guys should read my essay The Origins and Evolution of Perception in Organic Matter. I think it could be a good supplement to the discussion. — Enrique
The first assertion that caught my eye was "Phenomena of non-locality seem to have causal primacy over three-dimensional forms". — Gnomon
I'll have to take your word for the first phrase, but the second part about phase transitions being a construction of consciousness is what I'm referring to in the blog post. I think of Phase Transitions in terms of Emergence, which I personally define in terms of the limitations of human perception, rather than magical appearances from nothing.A mathematically non-negligible disjunct between phases and energies exists of course, but the impression of "solid", "liquid" or "gas" is a construction of consciousness. — Enrique
Again, the first part is above my pay grade, but the second part about "entanglement" etc, is right down my alley.So it seems to me that matter is fundamentally closer to superposition than spatio-temporal particularity, and an argument could be made for entanglement, coherence and tunneling also, with our cognition performing the act of resolving these non-local phenomena into the locality of organic bodies and atomic theory, — Enrique
The association of Virtual Particles with crossing over into an ideal Platonic realm stems from my original insight : that Information is both Mind & Matter. That notion was developed into the concept of EnFormAction (energy that transforms into matter & mind) in the Enformationism thesis.I don't identify the substance of relatively non-local matter with ideations such as Platonic forms beyond agreeing that our structure conceiving is infinitely adaptable to any possible perception if we employ mathematics. — Enrique
So, the holistic notion of Panpsychism can explain how two or more entangled particles can behave as-if somehow connected across space into a single entity. That “spooky action at a distance” is possible because the particles themselves are not isolated things, but more like the simple ideas that make-up a complex concept. Ideas are not bound by the limitations of space & time. — Gnomon
The notion that physical entanglement implies a metaphysical holistic state appeals to me. But the technical details of how that might work are beyond my limited understanding. And a relationship between the entangled state and human perception of Qualia, sounds possible, but working out the details is not in my job description.The comparision between entanglement and idea conception is interesting. — Enrique
There's definitely a biological clock in the brain that coordinates inner activity with the environment. And it may also serve as CPU timer to keep neural pulses from stepping on each other. But how that might relate to "coherence fields" is beyond me. What is a "coherence field"?Maybe a sort of clock mechanism exists in the brain for making coherence fields more synchronized, analogous to a CPU — Enrique
Interesting idea. Any thoughts on how that temporal correlation might produce self-awareness? Maybe by synchronizing information-processing feedback-loops?Maybe the presence of a "clock mechanism" correlates with self-awareness? — Enrique
Well - I wrote a long response to your earlier post only to find that my internet connection had mysteriously disentangled itself - my attempt to fix that crashed my browser and I had no choice but to reboot and I lost the whole lot...anyways, this phrase of yours pretty well sums up what I think about the recent exchanges between you and my old friend @Gnomon - reality is just much more complex and hybridized than our scientific models can cope with. We really cannot predict the ten commandments (for example) from the standard model of particle physics - no matter how much information we might have about the original "state" of the universe - because the ten commandments are (an encoding of) an exceedingly complex and hybridized "pattern" of (acceptable) moral behaviour that has emerged (quite naturally but entirely unpredictably) from the evolution of the human species and its collective, holistic "culture". It is all about how "we" relate - to one another, to our group and to reality as "a whole". This is an example of chaos - the butterfly effect and all that - no laws of physics were broken or suspended and yet out of (and wholly within) 'nature' an entirely unpredictable reality emerged. There is - in my opinion - no need to invoke some kind of supernatural agency, this stuff happens all the time - conglomerations of water molecules that appear - on the fundamental face of things - to be almost identical to one another, fuse together into featureless drops that fall from the sky and perturb the even bigger conglomerations of water molecules causing ripples that continue to spread across the breadth of an ocean long after the culprit molecules have slipped anonymously into the crowd where they betray absolutely no evidence of having made any difference to anything at all - and yet there are the ripples - undeniable realities which could not have been predicted no matter how detailed and precise any measurements of any particular water molecule(s) could have been....much more complex and hybridized. — Enrique
Why then, did cosmologists feel the need to invoke a "supernatural agency" to explain the logically "prior" cause of the Big Bang? Scientists are now producing arguments in favor of the Multiverse Theory that resemble ancient theological arguments for the existence of God. My G*D theory is just an alternative speculation based on the duality/unity of Information, rather than the dogma of atomic Materialism.There is - in my opinion - no need to invoke some kind of supernatural agency, — Siti
Yes. But, the realm of Ideality, "beyond the veil", is actually made of the same essential stuff as Reality : mundane Information. The difference is that Ideality is unrealized Potential, while Reality is actualized. It's a statistical difference : an immaterial Possible state and a physical Actual state.Beyond the veil of observable physical reality, is there really a qualitatively different realm of disembodied "wizardry" that gives rise to the illusion of materiality? . . . . Physicality and mentality inextricably entwined. — Siti
I suppose for the same reason that ancient cartographers used to write "here be dragons" at the edges of their maps.Why then, did cosmologists feel the need to invoke a "supernatural agency" to explain the logically "prior" cause of the Big Bang? — Gnomon
There's no harm, but how does it help? Equating "unseen" with "unrealized" is more or less the definition of the kind of idealism that I believe is counter-productive in terms of constructing a worldview consistent with genuine scientific knowledge...that seems to be the danger that the article you quoted from is referring to (https://academic.oup.com/astrogeo/article/49/2/2.33/246813) - the danger, as you correctly pointed out, of dogmatism...As long as it's just a hypothesis, serving to guide our search for understanding, there's no harm in imagining an unseen world beyond the veil of our local space-time. — Gnomon
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