This is were we differ - except in the most trivial sense, a model is NOT a model of something that exists. A model is a physical pattern, shape etc.Jim Cross wrote: ↑Thu Jul 21, 2022 7:57 pm
A model is a model of something. The cosmos is everything so it can't be a model of something else. Even if it were or could be, it is irrelevant to the discussion because consciousness arises in the organisms in the cosmos, not in the cosmos in its entirety.
If an engineer is developing a aircraft wing, that engineer might test (model) various shapes and patterns, simple or complex, perhaps in a wind tunnel - that's the point of a model - to test a pattern or shape or design that does not exist.
This ismy understanding of the claim evolution is a model - natural selection models or tests the suitability of patterns, shapes, designs, etc.
Another use of a model is to make predictions, which what I think you are getting at when you suggest consciousness is a model. Like a weather\climate model makes predictions . . . but this is not a physical model so I don't quite get how consciousness is a physical model.
So, does nature build\evaluate models or not?
If consciousness is a physical model, what space does it occupy, where is it located?