Finding Yourself - Consider an Android and Other Thought Experiments

Where are you? What is the thing that we define as YOU? Is it the physical form that experiences the world? Are you merely the electrical activity in the neurons of your brain, or are you something more?

In this blog post I will be tackling the nature of consciousness and individuality through numerous thought experiments, each designed to determine something about the nature of what consciousness and individuality really are.

WHAT are You?

source: sciforums

When we think of ourselves, or other people, what is it that we are considering to be "that person". Is it the collection of physical traits which make up their bodies? Is it the collection of their likes, dislikes and beliefs? Is it the thought processes which govern their behaviour and reasoning? What is it that makes you, YOU?

If your personality was transplanted into another body, or your brain into another head, would you still be you? Would you still be YOU if your personality were somehow placed into an artificial brain? If the answer to these questions is, yes, then we can argue that it is the personality which defines individuality and not the medium in which the personality is contained.

Further to this, if somebody else's personality was transplanted into your own body, would they become you? If the answer to this is, yes, then individuality is defined by the vessel in which the personality is contained. Considering that we often accept that the disembodied voice on the end of the phone, or the lines of text popping up on a screen are a person, I think we can safely assume that most would agree that the personality - rather than the vessel - is the defining characteristic of an individual.

WHERE are You?

Where is your personality? Is it produced by the ebb and flow of electrical impulses flowing through the wet-computer that is your brain? Is it some kind of disembodied concept similar to the idea of a Soul? Is your consciousness, your sense of self, even local to your body? To tackle this question from a purely scientific standpoint, we must consider what we know about the way that we experience the world through our senses. This is sometimes known as the "Brain in a Box" thought experiment and when taken to its logical conclusion, has profound implications.

Source: wikipedia

Everything we experience of the physical world is simply electrical impulses interpreted by your brain. If we were to place your brain in a box, keep it alive and feed it with all the sensory information of a given setting - it would be impossible for you to tell that you were not experiencing the physical world.

But let us take it one step further and really throw a spanner in the works! Under a local anaesthetic it is possible to have the top of your skull removed while conscious where you could, in theory, look at and even touch your own brain. This has the profound implication that; since anything we experience with our senses could be simulated, we cannot prove the existence of our own brains!

Consider An Android...

Science is showing more and more that we are living in a procedurally-generated universe, put simply; matter is defined by our perceptions of it. This is known in the World of Science as Holographic Universe Theory, but similar ideas have been put forward by science and spiritualism in concepts such as Vortex Mathematics, Sacred Geometry and the Schwartzchild Proton Unified Field Theory. But back to consciousness...

If we cannot prove the existence of our own bodies or indeed ANY matter outside of our own perceptions and experience of it, where is the personality? As uncomfortable as we may be with the concept, the thought experiment above shows that matter cannot be the source of consciousness, it must be the product. So where is the entity which uses the brain to think and the body to perceive? Where does your mind reside if not within the brain?

Consider an android; one of such immense complexity and so far in advance of our own technology that to us it would be indistinguishable from a biological human. This android is controlled remotely and the signal received by the android is undetectable to us, hyperspace communication, quantum entanglement, whatever mechanism you like.

If this android was damaged in such a way that it would be unable to properly receive, process or express the information in the signal - it would be easy to conclude, from our limited perspective, that it's personality had been changed or damaged. In reality, the signal would be clear and the Mind intact - the information would still exist. The personality, the Perceiver, would continue to endure.

The Two Possibilities

If you've made it this far I congratulate you, it's been a mind-bending journey, but here we are at the conclusion of all those experiments! Where does all this leave us? We cannot prove that anything but our own subjective experience of reality exists at all.Yet there is correlation between individual experiences, on a massive scale, which can lead us to one of two possible conclusions.

1. You are the only thing that exists in the Universe, everything and everyone else is an illusion, dream or simulation in which you are the only true participant.

2. There is some sort of Universal Overseer, a Unified Mind or Consciousness Field which ensures that all our experiences of Reality are consistent.

What if both were true? The Universe as we experience it does appear to have a natural polarity to it, doesn't it?

Namaste.

Fanfare for The Conscious

What's the Matter? - Missed Messages in Science

Science is important; I think we can all agree on that. It is the action of curiosity and intent to understand the Universe and Ourselves more completely. Science is the Eternal Question of Why and the relentless Pursuit of Knowledge.

But, in our thirst for measurable results and mathematical relationships, could we have missed some of the more profound implications of the discoveries we have made? In all our urgency to balance our equations of explanation, did we miss the simple and beautiful messages which come from our discoveries?

 The Great Balance

The most simple, profound realisation about the Universe provided by Science, can be taken straight from the way in which its relationships are expressed. Relationships, such as cause and effect, are described in Science using Mathematical Equations. For an Equation to be true (valid), it has to be complete and balanced (or EQUAL). Both sides of the equation must have equal value. For example, 1 + 1 = 2 is complete because all the terms are present and it is balanced because both sides of the equation have the same value.

Also worthy of note is the fact that all mathematical operations used in these equations are polar in nature - they have opposing functions. Addition is the opposite of Subtraction, as Multiplication is the opposite of Division. Just looking at the way that Maths describes the Universe tells us some really fundamental things. Which is that everything in the Universe is Polarised, Balanced and Equal. Everything has an equal and opposite, in true balance, a Super-Symmetry.

 The Great Unity

Einstein is, I believe, a misunderstood scientist. Many people will quote him like gospel, as if he is the be-all and end-all of Physics. However, I feel Einstein's work has been misinterpreted because many of his famous quotes seem to hint at a much deeper, more spiritual view of the Universe - which goes unrecognised by many who follow his works. Simply looking at his most famous equation - E = mc2 - in a qualitative sense tells you something incredible about our reality. You see, the relationship described here is one of a Unity between Energy and Matter. They are interchangeable and fundamentally connected to one another.

I believe that Bill Hicks described it best when he said, "All Matter is merely Energy condensed to a slow vibration." It is as if Matter itself is simply Energy in a state of low vibration. As though Light itself has been condensed and concentrated into physical form. Light (Electromagnetic Radiation), seems to be some kind of border state between the realms of Matter and Energy. It exists in a state of Duality, as both a Particle (Matter) and a Wave (Energy). If we also consider the hypothetical Tachyon then our understanding of this can be extended further.

Tachyons only exist as a particle when traveling slower than the speed of light. When they are traveling faster than this, they exist only as energy. When you consider this, the Speed of Light seems less like a barrier and more like a transition zone, where Matter becomes Energy and vice-versa. As Light itself sits exactly on this hypothetical boundary, it displays the Wave-Particle Duality that we are familiar with - the Unity of Matter and Energy.

 The Great Perception

In our early journeys into the Science of The Small, we found out even more astonishing things about Matter and our influence upon it. We found that what we see as Solid Matter - physical things - are actually 99.9999...% empty space. Even more profound was the discovery that the mere observation of Matter changed it - observation has been scientifically shown, scientifically, to affect the outcome of that observation.

To clarify, if an atom was the size a football stadium, the nucleus - the most solid part of it - would be the size of a full stop. Furthermore, the electrons exist as a probability field around the nucleus and, until they are measured, have no fixed position in space-time! It is as though the perception of matter itself causes it to condense into existence, a concept pursued long-ago in the Philosophical Existentialism and the thought experiment; "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Confused yet? Consider the Schroedinger's Cat thought-experiment. A cat is placed in a box with a flask of poison and a radioactive source, while a radiation detector is rigged to release the poison on the release of a radioactive particle from the source.  Because radioactive decay is random, it is unknown when the poison will be released and thus whether the cat is dead or alive. Essentially the cat, unobserved in the box, can be considered to be both dead and alive and neither dead nor alive, in a state of Unity and balance between opposing states.

To determine the state of the cat, a Change of Perspective must be made in order to make an observation - at which point the condition of the cat is determined as one of the two states. Until that observation is made, it is impossible to determine the state of the cat or even prove its existence at all. We can only provide proof of existence for things which have been OBSERVED. Until that observation, the Matter may exist only as Energy or even Data embedded in the fabric of the universe itself.

 The Great Observer

So, if Science has determined that observation directly affects the results of those observations. What can we determine about the Universe itself, with regards to the Observer? Many would argue that the Universe continues to do what it does even when it is unobserved by a physical being, so what impact does that have on our understanding of consciousness itself? What if consciousness itself is not local to the brain? What if consciousness exists instead as an energy field which is spread throughout the universe?

 Let us imagine for a minute that our physical being is like a radio. If we had no knowledge of Radio Transmission and we were to investigate the radio, tuned in and playing a broadcasted radio station; it would be easy to assume that the electrical activity we see flowing around the internal circuits was what was producing the audio signal independent of outside influences. We could argue that the electrical signals themselves were responsible for producing the patterns of sounds we hear coming from the speaker, but this would be incorrect. In reality we know that the radio simply converts the radio signals into the electrical signals - they are being generated by the radio waves.

Recent studies have begun to show that the assumed cause and effect between electrical activity in the brain and conscious thoughts may not be in the direction we have always assumed. Almost everyone will agree that electrical activity in the brain indicates the presence of Life, of Consciousness and it is usually assumed that those thoughts are caused by the electrical activity. But what if they weren't? What if our brains and bodies were merely a vessel, an antenna which is tuned into a very specific frequency of consciousness? What if our Consciousness, our Soul - the thing which uses our bodies to think, to feel and to experience - was not confined within the body?

For those of you who doubt what I am suggesting here, I ask you one simple thing: If you believe that your thoughts are generated by the electrical activity in your brain, why can you not "turn them off"? Try it for a moment; try to switch of your thoughts and think of absolutely nothing. Harder than you might have imagined. Now think about WHY that might be, REALLY THINK about it.

Namaste.

Fanfare for The Conscious

Sources

Wikipedia: Schrodinger's Cat
Wikipedia: Tachyon

Waking Times: Consciousness is Not Local to the Brain

All I Want for Christmas - Hope for the World

Dear Humanity,

It's at this time of year that I feel a special kinship with you all, whatever race, religion, colour or creed. Wherever and however you live, whatever you do, whatever you think and however you feel, I share a connection with you all and wanted to take a few moments to give a little message of hope this Christmas.

We were all created by the same Universe, the same forces of nature have shaped us all and we have all been crafted by our experiences - by the things that we remember and the things that we hold dear - we have moulded ourselves to become what we are. The things that we do for each other we also do for ourselves. It is by helping others and by giving some of yourself to enrich and improve the life of
someone else that you grow and gain so much more than you ever gifted in the first place. It is the things that you do that define you and fill you up with the energy of those acts, be it kindness or selfishness, positive or negative, good or bad - that is your choice to make based on what vibration you want to live at and the energy you choose to amplify within yourself.

In a year when so much evil has been shown to us on a daily basis please remember that every act selfishness, every terrible deed was mirrored and exceeded by the goodness of the human heart. Imagine the MILLIONS of wonderful acts of kindness, selflessness and love that have occurred all around the world, the things that never make the fear-circus. Remember the TENS OF MILLIONS of people, of various causes who have stood up for the things in this world that are MORALLY RIGHT and the social AWARENESS which grows every day. Remember that every change that has ever happened for the good of all started with a single defiant voice and that it is the choices we make TODAY which determine how TOMORROW will be.

The world is how we choose it to be and we have the power to rebuild this world as we see fit. In the coming year we will all have a profound choice to make in our own lives, whether we wish to live in a World of Fear or a World of Love. Whether we want to see the world as it is continue unopposed or stand up for the world that we know is possible with just a little faith and belief, because that is where it all starts. Beliefs lead to thoughts, those thoughts lead to actions and those actions reinforce the beliefs. Believe in yourself and you will think you are strong, thinking you are strong leads you to act upon that strength and acting on that strength makes you stronger.

We - as the people of the world - already have the power to change this world. THEY have lead us to BELIEVE that we don't have the power and because of that we have acted powerless. But we are Awakening, we are realising the true potential that we hold in this world and NOTHING can stop us now. We are UNITED, we are STRONG and we are ready to take this world back in the name of LOVE.

Peace Be With You All,

Namaste!

Fanfare for The Conscious

Five Short Videos to Change the Way You Think

As it's the first of December and our year is into it's final chapter, I wanted to take a moment to share five short videos which I have found emotional, inspiring and thought-provoking. Their messages have touched me on a deeply personal and fundamental level and I find it prudent to share them with you today, at a time when so many are distracted by consumerism.

Christmas is a time when many celebrate their bounty, while so many people have nothing. A time which I enjoy simply for the closeness of family, the coming together of friends and the simple act of giving, be it a hug, sympathy, or simply the time of day - everything we do for each other without asking anything in return is a gift. Those who recognise the birth of a religious figure, of whatever faith, should try to remember the messages of love, tolerance and charity preached by these people.

1. Bill Hick's Message to Humanity

A rant about drugs and lack of objectivity in mainstream media turns into a profound spiritual revelation and a simple message about changing the world we live in.

2. Charlie Chaplin's Speech from "The Great Dictator"

Charlie Chaplin's speech which was featured at the end of his parody about Hitler "The Great Dictaror"and is one of the most emotionally touching things I have ever had the pleasure of being exposed to. Listen to the late, great comedian talking about the state of the world and the nature of humanity. As relevant then as it is now.

3. Howard Beale - We're in a Lot of Trouble (Network - 1976)

This clip is probably even more relevant now then it was back then, this clip has a telling message about the concentration of media ownership into the hands of the few and the power of the propaganda machine that is the mainstream media.

4. Alan Watts - What if Money was no Object?

The importance of doing what you love for your own satisfaction, regardless of external idea's of your level of success. Alan Watts' monologue speaks volumes of why our society has stagnated at this stage of mindless consumerism and increasing spiritual and intellectual malnourishment.

5. V - The Revolution (V for Vendetta)

Probably my favourite speech taken from fiction. V (the Protagonist), breaks into the government television centre and uses the emergency broadcast system to try to encourage an uprising against the oppressive police-state.

Just wanted to give you all some food for thought.

Fanfare for the Conscious

A Fanfare for the Conscious Mind

Conscious individual thought is a precious commodity. It is one which I believe mainstream society places an ever decreasing value upon, and one which is essential to the scientific, spiritual and societal progression of our species.

As a Nation, we are taught to absorb and regurgitate facts as they are presented. We are rarely taught the value of questioning the authority, credibility or vested interests of those charged with the responsibility of delivering the facts.

The Purpose

The overall aim that I have for this blog is to encourage open discussion, debate and free thought around contentious issues in subjects such as:- Science & Technology, Politics and Current Affairs.

I want to create a space where people can feel free to discuss their opinions, ideas and feelings without fear of ridicule. A place where people can challenge the status quo and debate freely.

I am not looking to create a Closed Ideology Echo Chamber ; in fact I encourage people to disagree with me. It is how the best ideas are developed! But I will not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour on my blog or Facebook page.

Happy thinking, debating and researching!

Fanfare for the Conscious