Dear Skeptic
While I have enjoyed many thousands of hours arguing with people online about materialism, I have decided to limit the time that I spend trying to shake people such as yourself into a deeper awareness of their own bias and bias blindness regarding consciousness and its relation to physical phenomena.
I understand and appreciate that you are very intelligent – smarter than me in many ways I have no doubt. In this one way, however, you have convinced me that your perspective is outdated and/or you lack the particular skill set required to give the issue its minimum level of consideration. If you are actually interested in this subject and are capable of understanding the Hard Problem of consciousness then there are a number of books and videos which I can recommend (partial list to follow).
If you are not interested in considering possibilities other than those which you currently accept to be true, then I’m not interested in anything that you have to say on the subject. I’ve heard it all before, many many times I can assure you. From this day on, I’m only interested in talking to those who already understand why materialism and computationalism can never resolve the Hard Problem. Let those of us who do understand this issue deeply begin to work out the next steps in rehabilitating the foundations of our modern worldview. My intention is to pick up where others have left off and forge a new understanding with others who can contribute to it. For more detailed responses, please see the Common Criticisms page.
Without further ado, here are some good resources to get you started:
David Chalmers Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness and Philosophical zombie
Thus “thingness”, the appearance of materiality, even of living things, is dependent on the scale of observation. Note that appearance implies observation. Therefore, observation at all levels is implied, it cannot be taken out of the picture at any scale. Observation itself further implies sensory experience or qualia, more or less complex depending on scale.
Theise Kafatos: Fundamental Awareness PDF
Donald Hoffman’s Interface Theory of Consciousness Do we see reality as it is?
video: The Mental Nature of Reality – Bernardo Kastrup
Tononi & Koch IIT Consciousness as Integrated Information: a Provisional Manifesto
Prof. Raymond Tallis – “Aping Mankind? Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity”
Dr. Bruce Greyson: Consciousness Independent of the Brain
Even Sam Harris is coming around.
Thomas Nagel What Is it Like to Be a Bat?
Frank Jackson Mary’s Room { Philosophy Index }
John Searle Chinese Room
Advaita Vedanta (Nondualism)
Ed Close – Transcendental Physics
Transcendent Mind: Rethinking the Science of Consciousness
My own hypothesis Multisense Realism and link archive
NDE and reincarnation research:
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