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Universal Consciousness or Infinite Universes?

Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 12:16 am
by DavidSchuy
Hello Bernardo and hello to all members here,

I am preoccupied with the idea of whether consciousness is fundemantal and universal, or whether materialism is true in the sense of creating gazillions of universes in an observation.

Why do these point of views stand against each other? I mean, I really could imagine that consciousness is fundamental and that the multiverse exists. Meaning that gazillions of universes pop out of existence in an observation.

Why can one not combine and unite these views?

Thank you very much!

Re: Universal Consciousness or Infinite Universes?

Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 1:07 am
by AshvinP
DavidSchuy wrote: Sun Jan 17, 2021 12:16 am Hello Bernardo and hello to all members here,

I am preoccupied with the idea of whether consciousness is fundemantal and universal, or whether materialism is true in the sense of creating gazillions of universes in an observation.

Why do these point of views stand against each other? I mean, I really could imagine that consciousness is fundamental and that the multiverse exists. Meaning that gazillions of universes pop out of existence in an observation.

Why can one not combine and unite these views?

Thank you very much!
One can combine the views (idealism and infinite multi-verse) and I presume some have. Materialism is something different altogether - it is the view that reality is fundamentally comprised of material objects and the interactions between them within a space-time scaffold. Under this view, consciousness must be a little part of reality stuck on top of material interactions, so it is not compatible with idealism.

The main objection to the multi-verse hypothesis is that it is totally unnecessary to explain how consciousness gives rise to the world of experience and therefore it violates the criteria of parsimony. Although, sometimes it is used rather colloquially to mean 'there are potentialities which are real but have not yet been actualized', in which case I would say that is self-evidently true under idealism and only makes sense under idealism.

Re: Universal Consciousness or Infinite Universes?

Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 1:18 am
by DavidSchuy
But HOW can indefinitely many universes explain consciousness? There is the hard problem of consciousness... And matter is inanimate...

Re: Universal Consciousness or Infinite Universes?

Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 1:25 am
by AshvinP
DavidSchuy wrote: Sun Jan 17, 2021 1:18 am But HOW can indefinitely many universes explain consciousness? There is the hard problem of consciousness... And matter is inanimate...
That's right, it can't. So materialists who are using it to try and explain consciousness are barking up yet another wrong tree.

Re: Universal Consciousness or Infinite Universes?

Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 2:34 am
by Brad Walker
A multiverse isn't necessarily infinite like in physicalism. A multiverse doesn't necessarily contain mostly chaotic universe bubbles incapable of life, consciousness, or civilization. Doesn't a multiverse like in physicalism, combined with idealism, result in a Boltzmann brain problem?