Re:Is Matter Conscious? (2017)
by 0-_-0 on Monday February 25, 2019 @09:35AM
(#19245863)
> You have evidence that some matter (your PC) can run Windows. The simplest hypothesis that explains this is that all matter can run Windows. Any hypothesis that posits that SOME matter can run Windows and other matter does not requires two different kinds of matter and a mechanism to switch between the two. Seems that hypothesis requires a lot more assumptions.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
I don't think your rephrasing is very apt. "Some matter can run Windows" is only true because some humans configured matter into an arbitrary arrangement that we all agreed to label as "running Windows". There is no reason to speculate that all matter "runs Windows" since the definition of "running Windows" implies a specific configuration of matter.
Re:Is Matter Conscious? (2017)
by CuriouslyC on Monday February 25, 2019 @10:12AM
(#19246147)
So, you'd rather posit some mystical juju that makes matter gain consciousness, that somehow magically only happens to humans, and happens to matter when humans eat it, but yet is totally undetectable?
No I guess the parent's point is consciousness is inherent to all things. But it's just that it needs some minimal amount of biological configuration for it to manifest in a way that is meaningfully observable.
Which explain things like eating food(above minimal configuration) and death(Some cells die, failing the minimal configuration criteria).
Not all matter has to fend for itself in the environment. This constraint leads to evolution and consciousness. It's not magical, just self replicating.
Re:Is Matter Conscious? (2017)
by a_wild_dandan on Monday February 25, 2019 @02:52PM
(#19248778)
All true and consistent. "All matter can run Windows" is indeed the simplest explanation. It's wrong, but still the simplest, per Occam's Razor, as CuriouslyC pointed out.
Re:Is Matter Conscious? (2017)
by MaxBarraclough on Monday February 25, 2019 @04:15PM
(#19249518)
Occam's Razor does not abide false explanations.