RE: Consciousness & Space-Time
March 11, 2013 at 12:58 am
(This post was last modified: March 11, 2013 at 12:59 am by Whateverist.)
(March 10, 2013 at 11:52 pm)FallentoReason Wrote: ... we can then come to the conclusion that "the present" doesn't actually exist, physically speaking. If we imagine a cube of length x floating in front of us, we could say we define the space within it as "the present", but if we place ourselves at the very centre of it and look out towards the walls of this cube, we can conclude (from the above) that the walls of the cube aren't in "the present". For our cube to truly represent "the present", we must then make it smaller so that we are excluding anything that is in fact in the past from our perspective in the centre. The logical conclusion here will be that our cube will in fact shrink to the point that x -> 0 which means that we end up with a singularity -- a point in space which doesn't occupy any volume, therefore "the present" doesn't occur anywhere in space i.e. it doesn't occur at all.
Now, from here, this is where we bring in ideas about consciousness. If we think of our consciousness as being the same thing as the brain, then because the brain has a volume, it implies that we are in fact in the past from ourselves at any given time. The sorts of questions I personally have about this conclusion are: is this even possible?! Can I exist in the past from myself relative to a certain point in my brain from the other part of my brain? If the answer to these questions is "no" and therefore our consciousness can only be in one place at any given time, then I propose that the consciousness must therefore be like our notion of "the present" i.e. the volume where our consciousness is located -> 0 i.e. it exists at a singularity i.e. it isn't located anywhere in physical space. I know I exist though, which means I must have consciousness, so therefore it must be an independent entity from the brain.
Is it reasonable to assume that the brain is the consciousness' "vessel" that it utilises to exist in this universe/space-time/reality? Is it then also reasonable to assume that our consciousness doesn't end when our tool for peeking into this universe/space-time/reality stops functioning?
I don't have a problem with there being a delay between changes in my environment and my awareness of them. Understanding what we do about organisms generally it would seem odd for awareness to be instantaneous. What I mean is, that what you describe more or less conforms to my experience and expectations.
I don't see any rationale for thinking that consciousness is anything apart from the body that produces it. I seriously doubt that consciousness has any alternative to being embodied. So I don't see how the consciousness which has arisen as a function of my body can possibly continue on anywhere else.
Did I miss something?
