Im not taking a side in this argument but the same thing you just said could have been applied to something like atoms centuries ago. Who cares what stuff is made of it looks the same no matter if its the ether, or atoms, or tiny fairies, or whatever so the question is meaningless right?
That was until we figured out how to make microscopes, and realized how blind we had been all that time.
IMO this is a very narrow way to look at things. I agree that we should base things on material reality, but it is VERY important to remember that we don’t know everything, and there are likely entire fields of science humanity has yet to discover.
Our species is very young still, and the pursuit of the secrets of the cosmos is how we have gotten to where we are now. It is important that we both stay grounded in reality as you want to do, but also keep an open mind. Thinking about things that seem meaningless have led to great discoveries in the past. To stop doing that, or to look down on others for doing that would be a dire mistake.
Our understanding of the universe is nowhere near complete. That is the whole point of doing science. We are always growing our knowledge, and expanding into new fields.
For all we know consciousness could derive from a natural mechanism we have yet to discover. And cant yet detect. Just because we don’t yet have the capacity to understand it doesnt mean it is “magic”. There is that saying after all.
“Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”
One thing every scientist should realize is that for every single scientific discovery about the universe at some point centuries or decades earlier some philosopher was probably arguing about it with his buddies. Wondering about stuff is step 0. Its the foundation all our knowledge is built on.
Wondering is fine, if that’s all we’re doing, we should keep that in mind. Before we had the tools to study atoms empirically, it would be silly to choose one model and dig heels in and base other beliefs on it. If someone in the Middle Ages tells you they’ve just come up with a new way of building bridges that’s based on a certain model of the atom, you should probably pass that guy up. Even if he happened to stumble upon approximately the right idea, his understanding would be crude and unrefined.
Maybe there is some whole field of science yet to be discovered around consciousness, but even if so, such ideas do not provide a solid foundation to build other ideas on top of. Picturing things as a structure, those ideas belong at the top where they are not load bearing and can be safely tinkered with.
Im not taking a side in this argument but the same thing you just said could have been applied to something like atoms centuries ago. Who cares what stuff is made of it looks the same no matter if its the ether, or atoms, or tiny fairies, or whatever so the question is meaningless right?
That was until we figured out how to make microscopes, and realized how blind we had been all that time.
IMO this is a very narrow way to look at things. I agree that we should base things on material reality, but it is VERY important to remember that we don’t know everything, and there are likely entire fields of science humanity has yet to discover.
Our species is very young still, and the pursuit of the secrets of the cosmos is how we have gotten to where we are now. It is important that we both stay grounded in reality as you want to do, but also keep an open mind. Thinking about things that seem meaningless have led to great discoveries in the past. To stop doing that, or to look down on others for doing that would be a dire mistake.
Our understanding of the universe is nowhere near complete. That is the whole point of doing science. We are always growing our knowledge, and expanding into new fields.
For all we know consciousness could derive from a natural mechanism we have yet to discover. And cant yet detect. Just because we don’t yet have the capacity to understand it doesnt mean it is “magic”. There is that saying after all.
“Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”
One thing every scientist should realize is that for every single scientific discovery about the universe at some point centuries or decades earlier some philosopher was probably arguing about it with his buddies. Wondering about stuff is step 0. Its the foundation all our knowledge is built on.
Wondering is fine, if that’s all we’re doing, we should keep that in mind. Before we had the tools to study atoms empirically, it would be silly to choose one model and dig heels in and base other beliefs on it. If someone in the Middle Ages tells you they’ve just come up with a new way of building bridges that’s based on a certain model of the atom, you should probably pass that guy up. Even if he happened to stumble upon approximately the right idea, his understanding would be crude and unrefined.
Maybe there is some whole field of science yet to be discovered around consciousness, but even if so, such ideas do not provide a solid foundation to build other ideas on top of. Picturing things as a structure, those ideas belong at the top where they are not load bearing and can be safely tinkered with.