If we want to explain consciousness as an emergent phenomenon, we have to think carefully about what this means… Continue Reading
Posts Categorized: Shorts
Something Rather Than Nothing
If the fundamental nature of reality is timeless (spacetime is not fundamental), everything simply IS. Without a past or a future in the way we typically think of it, any glimpse of “something” is evidence that there is, and therefore always “has been,” something… Continue Reading
Experiencing the Universe Unfold
I attempted another bite-sized post, this time on the twin illusions of self / conscious will: Decision-making is a process in nature. And a beautiful one at that, in which the ever-changing dance of electrical firing in the brain is in constant dialog with the outside world and other beings… Continue Reading
The Strong Assumption
This post is a brief response to the claim that “we have evidence consciousness is brain-based.” The full case requires more text, but I made an attempt at a bite-sized version here: Until we attain a significantly more advanced understanding of the brain, and of many other systems in nature for that matter, we’re forced... Read more »
On the “Life Analogy” to Consciousness
The conclusion we draw about life, once we understand the reductionist story is: There’s nothing fundamentally new going on—all the ingredients were always there. “Life” is just molecules behaving like molecules under certain conditions (beginning with the ability to self-replicate). No injection of a magical tonic is required to breathe life into those atoms…. Click... Read more »