Consciousness and its permanence or lack thereof

[dierdrae]

Just another something I've been thinking about lately

Comments

[stephantom]

Hey. I've been through a big transition regarding my beliefs and asked myself a lot of similar questions. I'm afraid I can't really try to convince you that consciousness will endure beyond the body because, frankly, I don't think it will (maybe in the far-off future, with the help of technology, it will, but that's a different matter). All I can say is that pushing yourself to understand why you believe what you believe and opening yourself up to believing other things is good. But it is a painful process -- because, yeah, we do keep arguing very strenuously and there are admirable arguments made for the soul, for metaphysical explanations. But ultimately, I think, it's a losing battle. Materialism is just more convincing. We should be skeptical of that too, of course, because we don't know that there isn't some quality to the universe that we're just not getting at all... But we really shouldn't just assume something like the continuation of our individual consciousnesses when there's no reason to think it aside from our own desire

[essius]

Neuroscientists think they have consciousness all figured out- neatly explained by the brain, or at the very least, they expect that in the future it will all be explained neatly by the brain.

I don't know where you heard this, but it's false.

[peter]

some quantum physicists say that consciousness might be an inherant property of matter. obviously not consciousness in the same way that you or I are conscious, but regardless.

I often wonder if the next time the energy that compromises me is used to form something else living, would that be me? it might take billions of years to happen of course.

but then to go even more abstract, am I solely the energy that compromises me? I might be much larger than I originally think, I might also be that rock, that tree, that bird.. does the entire universe, compromised of all of us, play some crazy chaos theory style dance where the different parts of us engineer our rebirths into a physically manifested fully conscious form.

[peamasii]

Scientists don't know what consciousness is objectively.

[bast2]

I've always wanted to believe that when we die that's it--no "continuing on." Ceasing to exist would be a comfort (and yes, I know I'm in the minority; however, I don't seem to be plaugued with the mammoth ego which can't accept death).