Consciousness and the Mystery of Existence - Documentary about Consciousness and Reality

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Great video!

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/Rain-bringer 📅︎︎ May 02 2020 🗫︎ replies

Tell me more about this sac

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/0q-0q-0q 📅︎︎ May 02 2020 🗫︎ replies
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There are two great mysteries which have  captivated the human imagination for thousands   of years. The first of these is why the universe  exists at all. Why is there something rather than   nothing? In many ways this is a primordial  question and has been raised by thinkers of   every culture. And yet this ultimate mystery of  existence is all but eclipsed by another mystery,   --That conscious minds exist to perceive it  and bear conscious witness to the universe.   While it is present to every waking moment of  our lives, nothing is more mysterious than the   fact that reality allows for conscious experience.  Consciousness is the gateway of all value meaning   and significance in the universe, and yet no  scientific consensus has ever been reached about   how and why we have it. An ancient idea is that  the mystery of consciousness and the mystery of   existence are intimately connected, and perhaps  surprisingly, there are now growing numbers   of philosophers and scientists who take this  possibility very seriously. It is this possible   connection between these two great mysteries that  we will explore today. The Mystery of Existence.   Over the last century cosmologists have learnt a  great deal about the early universe. By analyzing   cosmic background radiation cosmologists peer  deeply into the past inferring the state of the   universe in what is thought to be its first  fractions of a second. But where did it all   come from? What caused the universe? What happened  before the Big Bang? The physicist Stephen Hawking   cautions that this is the wrong question.  The beginning of the universe was itself the   beginning of time. To ask what came before time  is meaningless -- like asking what is north of   the North Pole. And yet for many this answer fails  to satisfy. Why did the universe burst forth into   existence and what shaped it to be the way that  it is? Physicists have proposed that the spark of   existence had its origin in a quantum fluctuation  triggering an explosive chain reaction leading   to the still evolving universe we inhabit today.  This narrative of existence however, presupposes   the laws of quantum mechanics. It leaves entirely  unexplained why the primordial situation should   be constrained by quantum physics. It is here that  we encounter the central problem which haunts the   mystery of existence. --Every time we propose  the existence of a new initial state or cause,   another one is required to explain that. Instead  of explaining existence, we find ourselves simply   adding more to that which needs to be explained.  The same presumably goes for consciousness. To   those who claim consciousness to be fundamental to  reality, there is the challenge of explaining how   consciousness might avoid the same problem  of infinite regress. Why placing it at the   foundations of nature doesn't simply add yet  more to that which needs to be explained. In   recent times the possibility that consciousness  is fundamental to reality has re-entered the   academic conversation and gained new respect  from philosophers and scientists alike. There   are a number of reasons for this which I've  explored in other videos, but to summarize very   briefly, --- in recent decades it has grown  ever more conspicuous that the materialist   understanding of science seems entirely unequipped  to explain how and why consciousness exists.   --That our consciousness, the most undeniable fact  of reality, could so entirely evade our scientific   paradigm, has been taken by some as a conspicuous  sign that materialism, while fantastically useful,   is not an exhaustive account of nature,  and the what we have called consciousness,   may in fact represent a deeper part of reality  than previously imagined, at least by most modern   scientists. "If you can't explain consciousness in  terms of the existing fundamentals; space, time,   mass, charge then as a matter of logic you need  to expand the list. The natural thing to do is   to postulate consciousness itself as something  fundamental. A fundamental building block of   nature. Part of the motivation for this view comes  from the fact that standard science provides only   an external and behavioral accounts of reality.  Its intrinsic nature -- what reality is in itself,   is not provided by physics. Furthermore  the imminent reality of consciousness is   the only intrinsic nature we know of, and in  several respects it seems to be an attractive   candidate for also being the intrinsic interior  nature of reality itself. But if consciousness is   in some way fundamental to reality, how might  this shed light on the mystery of existence?   This question was explored by philosophers in the  late 18th and early 19th century, when a movement   known as German idealism rose to prominence in  Europe. As the movement progressed a core circle   of thinkers argued for the absolute primacy  of consciousness. Among other notable thinkers   philosophers Johann Fichte, Friedrich Schelling,  and Georg Hegel urged that a deeper understanding   of consciousness is necessary to understand why  anything exists at all. It was Friedrich Schelling   who first drew a direct parallel with the absolute  ground of existence and the essential structure of   consciousness. Existence, Schelling theorized must  be self-grounding. What this means essentially,   is that the primordial basis of reality must  somehow be the cause of its own existence. To   avoid the problem of infinite regress, an ultimate  ground must be supposed --of which self-existence   is part of its intrinsic nature. So what does this  have to do with consciousness? The philosopher   and mentor of Schelling, Johann Fichte had  previously argued that a unique feature of   consciousness is that it does not appear grounded  in anything beyond itself. The conscious self is   self-producing insofar that it exists only in and  to itself. As the contemporary philosopher Douglas   Hofstadter has put it, (quote) "It is almost as if  this slippery phenomenon called self-consciousness   lifted itself up by its own bootstraps -- almost  as if it made itself out of nothing." (end quote)   In a similar way the philosopher Peter Sas  described self-consciousness as like a (quote)   "magical matryoshka" -a Russian nesting doll which  also magically contains itself. It was precisely   this quality that schelling realized must be an  attribute of the ultimate ground of existence.   Furthermore, this was a quality that could be  found nowhere else but in consciousness. Today,   centuries later, the philosopher Freya  Matthews defends a position very similar   to Schelling. Matthews has pointed out that  the self-causing principle behind existence   must be reflexive meaning, that it directs back  into itself. Any truly self-causing principle   must be in essence "about itself" and yet this  property of "aboutness" known to philosophers   as "intentionality" is another property  found nowhere else but in consciousness. (Title) Something From Nothing. Could anything  ever really come from nothing? Perhaps the concept   of a true nothing is simply an idea --represented  nowhere in reality. Perhaps instead of beginning   with nothing, the challenge of explaining  existence should instead focus on defining   a self-existing ground at which explanation  can finally end. As we've already seen,   physicists have proposed that the true ground  floor of reality is the seething quantum realm   of particles foaming in and out of existence.  While this level of reality surely exists,   there is no clear reason why the primordial  situation should be constrained by quantum   physics. A deeper level of explanation seems to  be required. One possibility is that consciousness   is the absolute ground of existence. And while  this would add yet another level of existence,   as we have seen it offers the benefit of actually  posing an explanation for its self-grounding   self-existence. How quantum physics came to be  the ground of reality calls out for explanation,   whereas consciousness in theory, can explain  itself. If this is the case, we might wonder   how such a necessary self-grounding consciousness  could give rise to quantum physics and everything   else. How could something as intangible  as consciousness ground and connect with   the laws of physics? Respected physicists  have long defended, albeit controversially,   that a connection point does exist between  consciousness and quantum physics --notably   in relation to observation. It seems that in all  quantum experiments, the state of a system is   always defined by the information that can be made  available to observers. In quantum experiments the   choice to observe has the effect of defining the  state of the system, which would otherwise present   itself in a "superposition" of all possible  states, and in which, producing very different   experimental outcomes. While the interpretation  of this very strange finding is hotly debated,   leading physicists, both past and present, have  pointed to consciousness as playing a central   role in quantum measurement. Is it possible that  the universe exists through self-observation? is   the universe, as the physicist John Wheeler  once called it, a self excited circuit --in   which consciousness gives meaning and thus  reality to the world? In the past arguments that   consciousness is fundamental to reality have been  dismissed because in the physical world there is   simply no room for consciousness to play a role.  No "consciousness forces" or "mental particles"   have ever been discovered. But as the philosopher  David Chalmers has pointed out, in the quantum   world this is simply no longer the case. And  while a taboo surely exists around the subject, in   quantum physics there nonetheless exists (quote)  "A giant causal opening that is perfectly suited   for consciousness to fill." (end quote) A role  for consciousness in quantum measurement, Chalmers   points out, finally provides this fundamental  property of consciousness with a fundamental   role to play. It is worth keeping in mind that  it remains a complete mystery what physical laws   are actually describing. The intrinsic nature of  the world, what reality is in itself, is entirely   unexplained by physics. It is therefore at least  possible the physical laws, including quantum   mechanics, are in fact rooted in consciousness.  While the infamous claim that consciousness   collapses the quantum wave function may be wrong,  it is a possibility we cannot yet rule out, and as   we shall now explore, it is one which offers a  unique account of existence -- as arriving in a   mysterious way from its future. (title) Future  Origins Another baffling discovery of quantum   physics is that in the quantum world future events  can affect earlier events. Time can effectively   double back on itself. More broadly, this opens  the striking possibility that the birth of the   universe could have been caused by its future.  This was an idea proposed by the physicist John   Wheeler and later developed by the physicist Paul  Davies. Wheeler pointed out that observation of a   quantum system not only defines the state of the  system in that moment but also defines its entire   history. It is as though the act of measurement  produces histories which are consistent with   the present choice to observe. As wheeler once  famously remarked, (quote) "We decide what the   photon shall have done *after* it has already done  it." (end quote) In recent decades this surprising   fact of quantum physics has been demonstrated  many times in laboratories, and as wheeler argued,   there is no reason to doubt that this principle is  true of the entire universe -- that observations   made now, or perhaps even in the distant future,  stretch all the way back to the beginning of the   universe, and thereby established the necessary  conditions in which observers can exist. If so,   we as observers are in a mysterious way  participators in the existence of the universe. Along these lines, Davies has also argued that  it is at least plausible that the long-term   evolution of consciousness will one day pervade  the entire universe, that through the spreading   and development of conscious minds, perhaps over  billions of years, the universe is destined to   eventually realize its total mental potential.  In a resulting cosmic "Omega Point" the entire   universe finally becomes fully self-observed  thereby satisfying the conditions of its own   existence and retro actively creating itself.  (Davies) "Part of this weirdness of this quantum   physics is that observations which are made now,  can affect the nature of reality as it was in   the past, and in the same way observations made in  the very far future, maybe a trillion years hence,   can affect the nature of reality today and back  in the Big Bang. So if you buy this whole quantum   physics package, and you have this universe  saturated by mind or saturated by observers,   then indeed the whole character of the  universe, including the emergence of   its laws and the nature of its states, become  inextricably intertwined with its mentality,   with its mindfulness." Davies admits that this is  a highly speculative idea but it is nonetheless   consistent with what we know about quantum  mechanics and not an idea we can yet rule out. (title) Existence from Value. Another possible  connection between consciousness and the mystery   of existence lies in the relationship of  consciousness with value. Philip Goff is   among the recent wave of philosophers defending  the fundamentality of consciousness. Goff has also   suggested that the animating force of reality  may be mysteriously connected to its value.   Goff reminds us of an insight first made by the  philosopher David Hume in the 19th century. Hume   observed that we simply do not perceive causes  in nature. While we perceive a flow of events,   our apparent perception of causes is an illusion.  Similarly science does not actually reveal causes   in the world. Goff points out that once we  truly recognize this, we are free to consider an   alternative possibility: that natural necessity --  the animating force of existence, is not material   or mechanical, but in fact follows from its value.  Goff considers that such a view might also help   to explain why, against all of the odds, the  universe seems finely tuned to allow for what he   calls (quote) "a universe of great value" in which  conscious, value-sensitive beings can evolve. In   the last century cosmologists have learnt that  slightly changing any number of precise values   in the laws of physics has the immediate effect of  obliterating all possibility of life. Among all of   the intelligible arrangements of nature's laws,  the probability of a life friendly universe is,   in fact, trillions to one. This provocative  discovery has led to the proposal by some of   a "multiverse" -- trillions of other universes,  the existence of which can nullify the apparent   specialness of the universe. But as Goff and  others have argued, fine-tuning may actually   be an indicator of the deeper significance and  necessity of consciousness on the metaphysical   landscape. The philosopher John Leslie explored  this possibility in his 1979 book Value and   Existence, where he argued that, because of the  problem of infinite regress, no physical mechanism   will ever be adequate to explain the universe's  existence. To solve this mystery we must go beyond   materialism and consider there's something very  different -- more akin to value, is the animating   force of reality. If so, a universe capable  of supporting value-sensitive conscious minds   might have been a metaphysical necessity. Is it  possible, as the 20th century philosopher Alfred   North Whitehead believed, that (quote) "Existence  itself is the upholding of value intensity" (end   quote) The view that value is the animating  force of existence is a perspective with deep   philosophical roots both in Western and Eastern  systems of thought. Plato in particular believed   that the animating first-cause of existence was  its "goodness." For Plato, existence itself held   intrinsic value over non-existence, and that this  latent value was the generative force of reality.   While the human understanding of the universe has  progressed a long way since the time of Plato,   there are nonetheless philosophers today who  argue that Plato was essentially correct -- that   the underlying nature of the universe is  more mind-like than classically physical,   and the true creative force of this reality is its  value. Consciousness is the vehicle of all value,   meaning, and significance in the universe. To put  it bluntly, without consciousness nothing matters.   But is it also possible, as we have explored  today, that without consciousness, nothing would   exist? (essay ends) Hi everyone! I hope you found  this interesting. -- Another highly speculative   episode. Of course it is impossible to completely  explore an area like this in a relatively short   video, but I am very curious to know what you  think about this deep question of existence,   and the possible connection to consciousness.  --So let's talk about it in the comments. If   you enjoyed the video please give it a "like"  perhaps consider sharing it. I also really want   to thank my supporters on patreon who are helping  me to turn waking cosmos into a full-time project.   Thank you very much to those of you who are  subscribed over on my patreon. If you're not beat   you'd like to support my work, the place to go is  patreon.com/waking cosmos. Alright! That is about   it from me today. I will see you next time for  another episode of Waking Cosmos -- exploring the   nature of consciousness and its place in reality.  Until then I hope you have a beautiful day!
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Channel: metaRising
Views: 556,518
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Length: 24min 25sec (1465 seconds)
Published: Thu Apr 30 2020
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