How can consciousness be created through a mechanical system?
I've been thinking about this for a while, and haven't really posted on Reddit before, so apologies if this is a question that doesn't belong here.
I want to start by saying that by consciousness, I mean your sense of "self." You know that you are the same being you have always been since your first memory, almost by definition. While your experiences have slowly changed and morphed this sense of "self," you recognize that it has still been YOU having those experiences over the years/decades. Your consciousness doesn't materialize or dematerialize for years at a time, but is a daily, continuous experience.
Next, I want to discuss why I believe the brain is effectively a mechanical device. While it's true that the neurons use neurochemicals and electrical impulses to communicate, ultimately, on the micro level, it's nothing more than protein molecules being moved by other molecules/electrons in an impossibly complex manner. Despite the fact we discern "chemical" from "mechanical" in our macro world, ultimately, it's a matter of scale, and at what scale a force is being applied. If a molecule moves a molecule, it's considered a chemical reaction. But if a large series of molecules moves another large series of molecules, it becomes mechanical. At the end of the day, it's all one thing physically moving another.
All that said, how can a fundamentally mechanical system create a constant sense of self, unchanged, for the lifetime of the being? Localized, a neuron is nothing more than unliving protein molecules reacting to molecules floating nearby. Two neurons are just two clusters of these proteins that can now mechanically interact with each other (again, the components of a cell are not living, and all of the reactions are purely mechanical and not based on "the cell deciding to behave a certain way"). At some point, however, when you connect enough of these independent mechanical systems, you create the most complex thing in the universe. Literally. (Neurons can connect to any other neuron in any length of pathing, meaning that the possible neural connections, or thoughts, can be described as 80 billion factorial. That means there are more neural pathways possible than there are subatomic particles in the known universe). And this consciousness is living, unlike the parts. It is reactive, subjective, and capable of pondering its own existence. And even if it wouldn't be considered far-fetched that 80 billion of these independent machines can come together and produce something as spectacularly complex as consciousness (and by pure chance, no less), why would that product be a continuous stream? Why wouldn't it be an infinite series of independent consciousness' that react to the environment in the moment, only to be replaced by the next burst of consciousness?
I know this was more rambling than anything, and a lot of the thoughts are incomplete or poorly articulated, but I wanted to at least throw this out there and see what others think
(Side note: Kinda neat how my set of 86 million neurons can communicate with your set of 86 million neurons despite having no physical connection)
I've been thinking about this for a while, and haven't really posted on Reddit before, so apologies if this is a question that doesn't belong here.
I want to start by saying that by consciousness, I mean your sense of "self." You know that you are the same being you have always been since your first memory, almost by definition. While your experiences have slowly changed and morphed this sense of "self," you recognize that it has still been YOU having those experiences over the years/decades. Your consciousness doesn't materialize or dematerialize for years at a time, but is a daily, continuous experience.
Next, I want to discuss why I believe the brain is effectively a mechanical device. While it's true that the neurons use neurochemicals and electrical impulses to communicate, ultimately, on the micro level, it's nothing more than protein molecules being moved by other molecules/electrons in an impossibly complex manner. Despite the fact we discern "chemical" from "mechanical" in our macro world, ultimately, it's a matter of scale, and at what scale a force is being applied. If a molecule moves a molecule, it's considered a chemical reaction. But if a large series of molecules moves another large series of molecules, it becomes mechanical. At the end of the day, it's all one thing physically moving another.
All that said, how can a fundamentally mechanical system create a constant sense of self, unchanged, for the lifetime of the being? Localized, a neuron is nothing more than unliving protein molecules reacting to molecules floating nearby. Two neurons are just two clusters of these proteins that can now mechanically interact with each other (again, the components of a cell are not living, and all of the reactions are purely mechanical and not based on "the cell deciding to behave a certain way"). At some point, however, when you connect enough of these independent mechanical systems, you create the most complex thing in the universe. Literally. (Neurons can connect to any other neuron in any length of pathing, meaning that the possible neural connections, or thoughts, can be described as 80 billion factorial. That means there are more neural pathways possible than there are subatomic particles in the known universe). And this consciousness is living, unlike the parts. It is reactive, subjective, and capable of pondering its own existence. And even if it wouldn't be considered far-fetched that 80 billion of these independent machines can come together and produce something as spectacularly complex as consciousness (and by pure chance, no less), why would that product be a continuous stream? Why wouldn't it be an infinite series of independent consciousness' that react to the environment in the moment, only to be replaced by the next burst of consciousness?
I know this was more rambling than anything, and a lot of the thoughts are incomplete or poorly articulated, but I wanted to at least throw this out there and see what others think
(Side note: Kinda neat how my set of 86 million neurons can communicate with your set of 86 million neurons despite having no physical connection)
