What is consciousness? PART 1 | Iain Mcgilchrist, Roger Penrose and Steve Fuller
Sep 25, 2024
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In this thought-provoking discussion, Iain Mcgilchrist, a prominent neuroscientist and philosopher, joins Nobel laureate Roger Penrose, a mathematical physicist, and postmodern sociologist Steve Fuller. They dive into the elusive nature of consciousness, exploring its potential quantum links and challenging traditional views. Topics include shared consciousness, the mind-body connection, and the historical context of consciousness across various entities, making complex ideas accessible and engaging for all.
The conversation highlights the necessity of redefining consciousness to encompass various forms of embodiment, including artificial intelligence and potential extraterrestrial intelligences.
Participants explore the intricate relationship between consciousness and mathematical thought, suggesting that consciousness enables comprehension of concepts beyond physical existence.
Deep dives
The Quest to Understand Consciousness
The podcast delves into the ongoing challenge of explaining consciousness, with participants examining various theories and perspectives. Ian McGillchrist suggests that understanding consciousness may require a revised approach to quantum mechanics, hinting at the need for a more consistent framework beyond current theories. Roger Penrose highlights the limitations of sequential analytic thinking when attempting to grasp the complex nature of consciousness. He argues that consciousness may inherently elude a complete understanding due to its unique quality, akin to mathematical concepts that defy simple explanation.
The Role of Embodiment in Consciousness
The discussion presents the notion that consciousness is not exclusive to humans but shared among many animals, which expands the debate on the nature of consciousness itself. Steve Fuller raises the intriguing idea that other forms of intelligence, potentially existing outside the Darwinian evolutionary framework, could possess their own forms of consciousness. This opens the door to speculations about extraterrestrial intelligence and how it might communicate its consciousness to us. The participants highlight the necessity of redefining consciousness in a way that accommodates various forms of embodiment, including artificial and non-carbon-based intelligences.
Mathematics and the Broader Implications of Consciousness
The conversation touches on the relationship between consciousness and the abstract realms of mathematics, emphasizing the unique cognitive abilities that consciousness enables in humans. Participants explore how mathematical thought allows us to comprehend concepts and objects well beyond physical existence, which raises questions about the essence of consciousness itself. This relationship suggests that consciousness connects us to the universe in profound ways, impacting how we engage with reality and knowledge. The need to maintain a focus on what consciousness is directed toward—objects of thought and perception—remains central in explaining its nature.
We think we have this thing, consciousness, whether we share it with the entire earth or with only our species, but yet its definition has evaded the efforts of leading philosophers and neuroscientists alike for decades.
Do you think you know what consciousness is? Does it exist out there in the world or only in our thoughts?
Join leading neuroscientist and philosopher Iain Mcgilchrist, Nobel prize winning mathematical physicist Roger Penrose and postmodern sociologist Steve Fuller as they ask themselves these questions. Their conversation touches on the quantum element of consciousness, its hard problems, and more. The host if post-realist philosopher Hilary Lawson.
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