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Re:The unending quest to explain consciousness by cygx on Friday December 06, 2019 @04:35AM (#21720322)
If you're not a dualist, thoughts necessarily have to be accompanied by some change of state of the material substrate.
Re:The unending quest to explain consciousness by adrianN on Friday December 06, 2019 @04:46AM (#21720379)
Don't underestimate the complexity of a rock's internal state. There is a unfathomable number of atoms in complex crystal lattices in there. Defects in that lattice alone can encode a ton of information. Then you have a bunch of quantum state for each elementary particle. All of that reacts to external stimuli like temperature, pressure, or the occasional cosmic ray.
Re:The unending quest to explain consciousness by cygx on Friday December 06, 2019 @05:00AM (#21720441)
Thoughts are a process, so if they were supported by a crystal lattice, that lattice would have to go through changes.

As to your other point, the ergodicity of the system at the very least places a limit on the timescales over which consciousness may persist. I'm fairly confident in my belief that a rock cannot be conscious in any appreciable way.

Re:The unending quest to explain consciousness by skissane on Friday December 06, 2019 @05:17AM (#21720526)
You assume that dualism and materialism are the only options. You ignore other possibilities, such as idealism and neutral monism.
Re:The unending quest to explain consciousness by cygx on Friday December 06, 2019 @06:03AM (#21720716)
You're right. The dividing line is whether or not you think the physical and the mental necessarily coincide, which is in principle an orthogonal issue.