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That example I gave of the emergence of consciousness being a result of a growing brain was just an example and not necessarily what I believe, but it was on ba

That example I gave of the emergence of consciousness being a result of a growing brain was just an example and not necessarily what I believe, but it was on based this article from 2016: https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.00821 https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.00821 Which really just breaks down consciousness potentially being a byproduct of having a drastically higher number of neurological connections than lesser developed animal brains. So combining the two, the growing brain, caused by an increase in size of the visual cortex to detect snake patterns, increased the number of neurological connections and as a result the brain gradually became consciously aware. That’s just one theory that I used. And I 100% agree it’s okay to say that we don’t know, we don’t. And I don’t! But that won’t stop me from thinking about it like, a lot. Edit: spelling

angoragoats 2y ago
So do you agree with me that the statement "consciousness transcends evolutionary necessity" is not necessarily correct?
- coffeecantcode 2y ago
  From that point yeah, “transcends evolutionary necessity” like you said, is a positive claim. More accurate to my intent would be “consciousness is untethered by evolutionary necessity” maybe?
  - angoragoats 2y ago
    This is just changing your phrasing to say the same thing. It's still a claim unsupported by evidence. My contention is that the absolute most we can say about the topic of the evolution of consciousness is "we don't yet know how or why consciousness evolved."
    - coffeecantcode 2y ago
      And we’re not in disagreement there, my grounds for originally giving the example was only in the fact that consciousness is a prerequisite for spirituality to occur. I was really only saying that it is unique to humans and allows for abstract thought on the human condition. I respect your contention but I think we’re going in circles over semantics now.
      - angoragoats 2y ago
        > consciousness is a prerequisite for spirituality to occur Using your definition of spirituality, this is a tautology. I don’t see how we were going in circles; I was simply trying to get you to realize that something that seemed important to our discussion which you claimed as “fact” is about as far from fact as can be. Take care!

angoragoats 2y ago

So do you agree with me that the statement "consciousness transcends evolutionary necessity" is not necessarily correct?

coffeecantcode 2y ago
From that point yeah, “transcends evolutionary necessity” like you said, is a positive claim. More accurate to my intent would be “consciousness is untethered by evolutionary necessity” maybe?
- angoragoats 2y ago
  This is just changing your phrasing to say the same thing. It's still a claim unsupported by evidence. My contention is that the absolute most we can say about the topic of the evolution of consciousness is "we don't yet know how or why consciousness evolved."
  - coffeecantcode 2y ago
    And we’re not in disagreement there, my grounds for originally giving the example was only in the fact that consciousness is a prerequisite for spirituality to occur. I was really only saying that it is unique to humans and allows for abstract thought on the human condition. I respect your contention but I think we’re going in circles over semantics now.
    - angoragoats 2y ago
      > consciousness is a prerequisite for spirituality to occur Using your definition of spirituality, this is a tautology. I don’t see how we were going in circles; I was simply trying to get you to realize that something that seemed important to our discussion which you claimed as “fact” is about as far from fact as can be. Take care!