Philosophical Speculations

I have studied the view of Tom Campbell for a while. Tom Campbell argues that we all live in a virtual reality. This virtual reality is an information system. He defines consciousness as information. And he further says that we do not live forever; rather we will dissolve and the Larger Consciousness System will create a new Free Will Awareness Unit out of the Individuated Unit of Consciousness.

So to my question: I IMHO think that this cannot be. Never! And there are false assumptions.

First and most important: Consciousness is not information. Consciousness is not made out of data or information since consciousness in needed in the first place to recognize that information as such. And consciousness is the ontological primitve that is made of "nothing".

What is your personal opinion of Tom Campbell and his theory of "My Big TOE"?

Thanks!

The choice of words describing this metaphysics, may not be well chosen ... but then there is a dilemma between what can be understood in a common language to describe physics and transpose them into metaphysics to give them another meaning, risking confusion. There is no common language for metaphysics afaik. "Virtual reality" indicates access to an alternative and more "correct" reality. Information indicates decision on validity and value of said "data" which is really impossible. Information cannot arrive as such, it has to be evaluated meta-consciously.

Unless I am everything there is (solipsism), there must be something outside my experience, which I cannot access - but which my experience to some extend "represents". This representation could be called a "virtual reality", but with a reference to a "reality" I have no access to. I only have the virtual one.

I think the major error in Tom Campbell's thinking is that consciousness IS information or data. He says that very often. And I sent questions to him that he answered in a Q and A video.

How exactly can consciousness be information or data? Consciousness is nothing other than consciousness. This is a tautolology but never mind. It is true. Consciousness is the basic level of all of reality. And consciousness is needed to recognize information. If you have data, that is nothing than differences in a medium. Without consciousness there is no information.

His LCS is called the Larger Consciousness System and he defines this system as purely consisting of information.

How can information be conscious?

DavidSchuy wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 8:55 am I think the major error in Tom Campbell's thinking is that consciousness IS information or data.

I would agree

How exactly can consciousness be information or data? Consciousness is nothing other than consciousness. This is a tautolology but never mind. It is true. Consciousness is the basic level of all of reality. And consciousness is needed to recognize information. If you have data, that is nothing than differences in a medium. Without consciousness there is no information.

I would agree

How can information be conscious?

Aren't you putting the cart before the horse there ? Information could be defined as "valuable" experience. Value is purely subjective, so it is at most a part of the conscious experience

TC's digital physics view is that Consciousness began (for him Time is real!) as dim random digital bits (on or off) and brightened itself by choosing the interesting patterns - which give rise to what we call information. It's as though he is conflating experience and experiencer like Annaka Harris. I don't know how he would look at Qubits. I think his computer model is starting to creak with age.

My first impression of Campbell from briefly encountering his work before stumbling onto Kastrup was that Campbell was indulging in wishful thinking sometimes (alternate realities, free will, etc.)

The digital people of bivalent logic tend to forget and deny by omission that transistor can work either as an amplifier or a switch. The continuous current of the amp works wonders with my black Gretsch without switches (for the duration of music). The switch function of boolean etc. logical gates does not work without continuous current.

SanteriSatama wrote: ↑Wed Jan 20, 2021 2:30 pm The digital people of bivalent logic tend to forget and deny by omission that transistor can work either as an amplifier or a switch. The continuous current of the amp works wonders with my black Gretsch without switches (for the duration of music). The switch function of boolean etc. logical gates does not work without continuous current.

Well, yeah, except for the cases when the quantization error in digital systems becomes is so small that it is below the thermal noise limit, in which case the digital amplifiers (such as sigma-delta DACs or class-D amps) become indistinguishable from analog amps.

Eugene I wrote: ↑Wed Jan 20, 2021 2:55 pm Well, yeah, except for the cases when the quantization error in digital systems becomes is so small that it is below the thermal noise limit, in which case the digital amplifiers (such as sigma-delta DACs or class-D amps) become indistinguishable from analog amps.

Yep. The ability of digital information to emulate analogical information for sentient observation is very curious phenomenon and opens variety of Matrix philosophies. The main distinction here is not the directly sentient, but sapient theory of thought experiments about necessary preconditions, which cannot be thought well outside of philosophy of mathematics.

If everything is quantized it can be represented with digital quantities that at our scale appear analog.