Mind/matter duality

[bennyboy]

I'm interested in understanding why you gravitate towards mind being an emergent property of universal physics rather than being an emergent property of the brain; particularly, since the only example of mind, as we are discussing it, is located in only one species on our mundane little speck of dust. Without some argument, your position seems more incredible.

A sleeping brain (at least in some states of sleep), or one in a coma, is not conscious. Therefore it is the processing of information which seems intrinscially linked to awareness.

The $64,000 question is whether ANY physical structure which can do massively parallel processing in the same (or similar) way will necessarily be conscious, or whether ONLY the organic system of the brain found in animals on Earth can achieve this. Generally, it's good not to speculate on things that aren't known to exist. However, the idea that life has ONLY existed on Earth, and that the mind has ONLY evolved on this little speck of dust, reaches Biblical proportions in its anthropocentrism.

I just don't think we're that important. I think the existence of my mind says that minds can exist in the universe. And if the universe can have minds, it is likely to have many more than just us. To think otherwise is almost to believe in magic, IMO.