Mind/matter duality

[bennyboy]

There are two possibilities:
1) The physics of humanity would function exactly the same without consciousness. In this case, the evolution of consciousness would be pointless-- all the genetic interactions with the environment would have deterministically led to non-aware beings that function exactly as we do. There's no "need" for an actual sense of awareness.

2) Consciousness adds something to our genetic fitness that goes beyond the pure physics of the body. In this case, whether it's dependent on brain structures is irrelevant-- consciousness is an extra layer that transcends the pure mechanics of the human body (including brain function).

That is quite a jump in thought. How can you justify that statement?

Assuming that the mind is a product of the brain, then by its very definition, it is a product of the mechanics of the brain. To say otherwise is to invoke a transcendent or supernatural explanation that has absolutely no grounding in the reality we currently know.

Really, the two possibilities are:

1. The mind is a direct product of the mechanics of the brain

2. The mind is of supernatural origin and is something beyond the mechanics of the brain.

Mind you, I am not silly enough to argue that these are the only possibilities for the mind/brain dichotomy. But within the bounds of this discussion, these are the options we come down to.

So I have to ask, what do you believe? Is the mind supernatural?

The short answer is I don't know. I don't like the word supernatural, though.

The particular speculation that I gravitate to is the one that I just said-- I think it's more likely that mind of some kind is intrinsic to the physics of the universe, rather than miraculously spawning due to the arrangement of particular organic structures on a little blue dot in an inconsequential solar system in one of a gazillion galaxies. THAT is an assumption that I find hard to swallow.

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Nobody yet has explained why a machine that functions exactly like the brain, but without subjective awareness, couldn't perform all the same evolutionary functions.

We are not yet in a position to determine if this is true or not. It mat very well be that, at the level of complexity where our brains operate, consciousness may be absolutely required.

In other words, perhaps consciousness is absolutely unavoidable once a brain achieves a certain level of complexity.

It may be that consciousness IS complex information processing, and is not dependent on any particular physical structure (i.e. the brain).