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To: RightWhale
But complex consciousness is there already in all lifeforms and simple consciousness in all things. This hypothesis automatically trivializes our contemporary problems concerning the origins of consciousness. No need to test, just look for phenomena that could be signs of the need of consciousness to complexify. Complexification is the most natural phenomenon there is; matter will complexify if at all possible, and consciousness is the directing force. See Wolfram.

Not sure what you are saying in the above. Surely you are not saying that rocks have consciousness? For consciousness to be the source of complexity it must have been in existence at least since life began. Now while I might agree that all life has purpose and has a goal, I am not so sure that bacteria would be conscious of themselves which is part of the most basic definition of consciousness.

446 posted on 07/10/2003 8:55:39 PM PDT by gore3000 (Intelligent people do not believe in evolution.)
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To: gore3000
bacteria would be conscious of themselves

The one thing that makes us different from our close relatives, the monkeys and apes, is reflection. So say some reflective scientists. Who will dispute that all mammals have consciousness? Who will argue that apes don't have reflection? Evolution, as fas as we are concerned, is not in the corporal body at all except for some minor changes to brain structure. There are degrees of consciousness: we see differences all the time, in ourselves, in others, in other animals. Who will say that the lowest degree of consciousness resides in a small mammal and not in a bug, not in a plant, not in a virus, not in a long-chain molecule, not in an oxidized metal atom, not in a quark? Where to draw the line, and why?

491 posted on 07/11/2003 9:06:44 AM PDT by RightWhale (gazing at shadows)
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