#davidchalmers

The Mystery of Consciousness🧠: Why the Philosophical “Zombie Assumption”🧟‍♂️Is Misleading ❌ Could there be beings that behave exactly like humans on the outside but possess absolutely no inner experience, no true consciousness? In the philosophy of mind, David Chalmers’ concept of the “philosophical zombie” is a famous thought experiment. But does it hold up to neuroscientific and logical scrutiny? In our Zoomposium, we take a critical look at this myth. To claim that a biological “zombie” would behave identically to a conscious human being lacks any logical or empirical basis—it is about as contradictory as a square circle. Why the zombie assumption fails from a scientific perspective: • Consciousness has a clear function: Countless psychological experiments show that a conscious human behaves fundamentally differently from a system that acts purely unconsciously. Consciousness is not a useless byproduct (epiphenomenon). • The evolutionary spotlight: Our brain selectively activates consciousness as a tool. It becomes active whenever automated, unconscious processes reach their limits—that is, in completely new, complex, or life-threatening situations.

Despite great progress, we lack even the beginning of an explanation of how the brain produces our inner world of colors, sounds, smells and tastes. A thought experiment with “pain-pleasure” zombies illustrates that the mystery is deeper than we thought. Source: The Mystery of Consciousness Is Deeper Than We Thought These musings on consciousness by Prof. Philip Goff are just brilliant where I’m…

I love this matrix / simulated reality theory. It shows and forces people to question the very idea of life and reality. To me it seems like it would be a very polarizing idea, a theory that almost forces conversation. The more capable we become at creating simulations, virtual reality and artificial intelligence the probability of us being in a Matrix like environment becomes quantified.

This article asks an interesting question, if we were in a Matrix type world “would this imply for your hopes, dreams and experiences? The article infers that most people would answer “yes”. I would disagree. Just because an actual experience might be a simulation of sorts, it does not mean the emotions and actions you felt during that experience were not real. I’ve experienced love, hate, defeat, triumph, life and death and the emotions and memories that I have from those experiences are real.

My recent fascination with this type of science really comes for the amount of friction, discussion and disagreement this theory has amongst the scientific community. This entire scientific study questions the very idea of what we assume reality to be! I wonder what following the science looks like in “base reality”.

Direct Quotes:

If you woke up one day and discovered that you were living in a virtual world –that everything you'd ever known was, like the Matrix, a form of hyper-realistic simulation – what would this imply for your hopes, dreams and experiences? Would it reveal them all to be lies: deceptions devoid of authenticity?

For the philosopher David Chalmers, however, none of this necessarily follows. No matter what the status of your reality, he suggests, your thoughts and experiences remain as real as it gets. And the value and purpose of your life are similarly untouched. In fact, as Chalmers bluntly puts it in his new book, Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy: "Simulations are not illusions. Virtual worlds are real.

Your perception of being you is something that you know exists, but that's also impossible for anyone else to experience, record or feel.

As Chalmers put it in a 1995 paper based on his talk: "Why should physical processing give rise to a rich inner life at all? It seems objectively unreasonable that it should, and yet it does." The link between mind and matter is perhaps philosophy's most ancient enigma – and one that, for all the scientific advances of the last few centuries, becomes if anything more mysterious if you don't believe in souls and spirits.

the suggestion that every form of information processing entails an irreducible component constituting the basis of conscious experience. According to this view, the relatively simple information-processing taking place in the brain of a mouse yields relatively simple experiences, the immensely complex information-processing taking place in a human brain yields immensely complex experiences, and, most provocatively of all, even the minimal kind of information-process taking place in a device like a thermostat may yield a minimal kind of experience. Consciousness is, in other words, an inherent property of the Universe itself: something that cannot be explained merely in terms of matter.

Although they started work on it in 1995, the paper didn't actually appear until 1998 – because, Chalmers explained, "we tried to publish it in three journals and they all turned us down: they thought it was rather extreme speculation." The speculation turned out to be prescient to a degree that has impressed even its authors. "It's interesting," Chalmers told me, "how some of these things go from being totally implausible, to interesting but speculative, to totally obvious." What was once an extreme imaginative leap has, over the course of two decades, become an everyday reality.

Chalmers pointed out that discovering that you've lived your entire life inside a simulation doesn't invalidate the "reality" of that life

What follows from this? Among other things, Chalmers argues in Reality+, the question of whether we're living in a simulation has an unexpectedly theological dimension. A simulation operated by super-powerful entities is, in many ways, equivalent to a Universe created by a divine being. And it begs similar questions – not least if you turn out to be one of the super-powerful entities in question. What kinds of risks and responsibilities accompany the god-like powers associated with operating simulated worlds?

Harnessing the Elements, david chalmers

Acrylic on 300gsm/ 140lb acid free canvas textured acrylic paper attached to back board. White mounting card to front. Supplied framed or unframed. A painting about the need to utilize our sustainable resources.

Beyond the Edge of Reason, david chalmers

Acrylic on 300gsm/140lb acid free canvas textured acrylic paper attached to back board. White mounting card to front. Supplied framed or unframed.

What If Consciousness Comes First? (via Psychology Today)

Source: ColiN008, Pixabay

Bridging the mind-body gap will require a fundamental shift in perspective.

Source: What If Consciousness Comes First?

Above is an article of rather philosophical nature, but one I’ve found all accurate in its arguing that said philosophers, agnostics, scientists may have gotten the quest for the nature of consciousness all wrong in that we’ve looked at it from the…

Day of the Dead ( Todos Santos ), david chalmers

Acrylic on 300gsm/140lb acid free canvas textured acrylic paper attached to back board . White mounting card to front . A portrait of a Mayan family during the Day of the Dead festival in Todos Santos, Guatemala.