"The universe is rather bigger and more complicated than any given set of brains."
-Poul Anderson, "Lodestar" IN Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1978), pp. 368-410 AT p. 389.
It is certainly a lot bigger.
"The human brain is an extraordinary thing to be sure - but we now know that many other structures in the universe, and indeed the universe itself, are far more complex."
-Charles Liu, Karen Masters, Sevil Salur, 30-Second Universe (London, 2023), p. 108.
Do we?
Liu, Masters and Salur think that it is plausible that cosmic complexity generates:
"...something akin to consciousness..." (ibid.)
- although they add that so far there is no scientific evidence for this.
Complexity is quantitative. Consciousness is qualitative. Quantitative changes do cause qualitative changes but complexity as such does not cause consciousness. Computers are not conscious. Consciousness arises when complex, sensitive organisms interact with their environments, e.g., when they pass from needing nourishment to feeling hunger or from being hot to feeling hot. More complex and active organisms pass from immediate sensations to perception, thought etc. This would not happen in a complex entity with no environmental interaction. But what might be happening on a cosmic scale? Poul Anderson's Genesis shows the beginning of a cosmic process originating on Earth.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I don't believe in absurdities like conscious galaxies! A star, planet, rock, tree, etc., are not and cannot be self aware, intelligent beings.
Ad astra! Sean
"The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we -can- imagine."
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, but I still don't believe in conscious rocks, let alone conscious galaxies!
Ad astra! Sean
But what are the parts of the universe that are claimed to be more complex than human brains and might some of them somehow be conscious? I don't know and I certainly do not believe anything but the first question is what is it that is said to be more complex than a brain? After that come any questions about what properties it might have.
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