Consciousness & evolution

[Sriram]

This one is probably more interesting, just science, no woo.

https://www.ted.com/talks/anil_seth_your_brain_hallucinates_your_conscious_reality#t-172764

'The brain hallucinates our conscious reality'....Yeah Right! 

[Sriram]

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/07/world/animals-climate-change-shape-shift-scn/index.html

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Some warm-blooded animals are experiencing shifts in their body shapes, likely as a response to the pressures of climate change, according to a new review of existing research.

Animals are getting larger beaks, legs and ears that allow them to better regulate their body temperatures as the planet gets hotter, with birds particularly affected, said Sara Ryding, a researcher at Deakin University in Australia and one of the authors of the research that published on Tuesday in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

The biggest shifts in appendage size in the more than 30 animals they looked at in the review were among some Australian parrot species, which saw their beak size increase by 4% to 10% on average since 1871.

This phenomenon of shape-shifting shouldn't be seen as a positive, but rather it is alarming that climate change is pushing animals to evolve like this, under such a relatively short timeframe."

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[torridon]

'The brain hallucinates our conscious reality'....Yeah Right! 

This understanding is pretty much widely accepted in neuroscience.  Our experience is something generated from within rather than constructed entirely from sensory data from outside.  Sensory data acts acts as constraints and calibration on the experience generated from within.  This is why our dreams are so unhinged.  Dreams are what happens when there is no sensory data available to constrain the flow of conscious experience.

[Sriram]

This understanding is pretty much widely accepted in neuroscience.  Our experience is something generated from within rather than constructed entirely from sensory data from outside.  Sensory data acts acts as constraints and calibration on the experience generated from within.  This is why our dreams are so unhinged.  Dreams are what happens when there is no sensory data available to constrain the flow of conscious experience.

Analyzing how the brain works is one thing...which is fine....but believing that the brain IS the person is quite another. 

[Nearly Sane]

Analyzing how the brain works is one thing...which is fine....but believing that the brain IS the person is quite another. 

In the sense you seem to mean person, I don't think it exists at all.

[Dicky Underpants]

In the sense you seem to mean person, I don't think it exists at all.

I'm not sure quite how Hinduism (or Sriram's beliefs within it) regards 'person' at all. As I understand it, the human soul is referred to as 'Atman'. But according to Advaita Vedanta - and no doubt other philosophies within Hinduism - 'Atman' is 'Brahman', the godhead itself. Where is a 'person' in all this?

[Sriram]

I'm not sure quite how Hinduism (or Sriram's beliefs within it) regards 'person' at all. As I understand it, the human soul is referred to as 'Atman'. But according to Advaita Vedanta - and no doubt other philosophies within Hinduism - 'Atman' is 'Brahman', the godhead itself. Where is a 'person' in all this?

According to String theory the String vibrates in 11 dimensions and transforms itself into different elementary particles...which them combine to form heavier particles, which form atoms. These atoms bond together and create the world.  One exotic 'thing' transforms itself to create this whole universe.

The idea of Brahman or the Universal Consciousness is similar.  According to Hindu beliefs,  the Brahman, through its vibrations.....creates many celestial worlds and beings and also the earth and humans. According to this idea...we are emanations from the One...and are in the process of flowing back into the One.

A 'Person' is composed of many mental and physical features that are generated during his lifetime.  At the core however, he is essentially a spark of the One Consciousness.