Philosophy / Science / Religion

[€uroMeinke]

for me determinism contradicts consciousness. While it may be an artifact of mechanical systems, I would have to wonder why my consciousness is limited to one set of experiences. If things are all connected, and consciousness is an artifact of that complex connectedness, why do I not have a universal consciousness?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by €uroMeinke

for me determinism contradicts consciousness. While it may be an artifact of mechanical systems, I would have to wonder why my consciousness is limited to one set of experiences. If things are all connected, and consciousness is an artifact of that complex connectedness, why do I not have a universal consciousness?

You can't see infrared light, but there's some pretty good evidence it exists. There is simply no mechanism for your consciousness to communicate directly with others', it doesn't have the necessary sensory input (and any connectedness is many many many many orders of magnitudes weaker than the connectedness your consciousness has with the various parts of itself, so there's not much reason for it to bother evolving such sensory input).

Any computer connected to the internet is connected to every other computer on the internet, but they do not act as one computer, nor do they have any access to the internal workings of any other computer.

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

You can't see infrared light, but there's some pretty good evidence it exists. There is simply no mechanism for your consciousness to communicate directly with others', it doesn't have the necessary sensory input (and any connectedness is many many many many orders of magnitudes weaker than the connectedness your consciousness has with the various parts of itself, so there's not much reason for it to bother evolving such sensory input).

Any computer connected to the internet is connected to every other computer on the internet, but they do not act as one computer, nor do they have any access to the internal workings of any other computer.

Right but that infra-red light I can infer from my experience (i.e, by conducting an experiment). And I can communicate to other people, see photos of things they see, and yet don't experience them as a "self." I only know of my own consciousness, and can only assume it of others - if there is no distinct self, why would I experience one?