and where is this conscious matter located pls? interestingly, we can interpret emulate and synthesize pretty much the whole acoustic and electromagnetic spectrum yet no machine will ever translate or record or recognize consciousness, the effects yes.but consciousness originates in another dimension altogether. perpetuity is reliant on one achieving a harmonic frequency with the universal intent

i talk to my cat with a granted, limited, array of words and expressions, the only conscious trait we H.sapiens exhibit, that i've managed to think of that animals may not exhibit, is a sense of irony. if a dolphin was on land looking at a human in the water would they laugh at the irony, cats get bashful, dogs love being perplexed by a magic disappearing toy up the back of your sweater. animals exhibit compassion, they get intrigued and investigate and come up with solutions. all indicate the the product of conciousness, Intent. (not like camping, animals don't really camp do they?)

Oh you mean the brilliantly comprised bag of bones and brain of which you have the tiniest bit of actual control of, when you take away the autonomous aspects of the brain and body the subconscious and intuitive, procreative, instinctual and albeit limited regenerative facilities. when you take away the vast number of tiny organisms that we are comprised of, not to mention the 99.999999999999% of us that is in actuality empty space, The 0.0000000000001% thanks of course to superposition, accounts for the orbiting electrons etc. Take the minerals, chemicals including water of course, take all that away my friend and conciousness is about the only real thing you have/are. and its not even localised, merely expressed in this dimension.

@MattBell if you you take all of that away, then surely there is nothing to be conscious.
"and its not even localised, merely expressed in this dimension." perhaps you might elaborate on WTF that means and how you came to that conclusion using what evidence?

everything we experience IS conscious energy. consciousness is quantified by intent. evolution or rather adaptation is the unversal intent. it is expressed in an infinite number of ways, included in that long list is everyone as well. we are still connected to the collective expressor, to which we/our experiences and perspectives are collected. and made available to all when we finally graduate kindergarten. it is the only way anything can manifest. I can only of course account for my own experiences and observations. the processes of the universal are limited but translatable and provide for apossible perpetuation/graduation. no one knows do they or it can't be proven but based on the miraculous and unexplainable situation teeming with contradiction and paradox we find ourselves in and hopefully we do, i rekon its most likely theres more than meets the eye. atheists can't eat cake btw.

But isn't that just the essence of what it is to be an emergent property, that it can't have been predicted in advance?

@MarkWD I’m not following you. Can you elaborate?

@WilliamFleming
I was thinking that consciousness is an emergent property of life just as life is an emergent property of matter. I can't agree with Planck that consciousness holds it all together if consciousness only emerges later in the process. However I do think it is pretty special that there is this movement from chaos to matter to life to consciousness. I guess Planck must think it consciousness directing it that way but I'd prefer to call this dynamic movement toward increasing freedom and complexity a mystery without implying I know how it is resolved.

@MarkWD one factor to consider is the possibility that time itself is not a meaningful concept without consciousness. In his book Reality is not What it Seems, Physicist Carlo Rovelli says that time does not exist. One event does not come before or after another event, so “emergent” has no meaning from a cosmic perspective.

It’s certainly mysterious and I am totally bewildered, yet I can not believe that all of this is nothing but just an accident. That is not satisfying for me.

@WilliamFleming I wouldn't argue for it being an accident but I leave that possibility open. Given that I am considering the possibility of no time from my own consciousness dependent perspective, the necessity of such a perspective to make time a meaningful concept certainly seems compelling. But my agnosticism is of the sort that inclines me to be skeptical toward conclusions drawn on such abstract bases. Not skeptical as in "no way", just skeptical as in preferring to mark it as unknown.

Just to be clear, I have no problem with you concluding differently in the matter. You're certainly in good company.

evolution, moreso adaptation, denotes an intent of sorts. why do we say such things as MY hand is giving ME grief when it is kind enough to tell us we;re injured. procreation and survival of species, the instinctual will to live all intimate an intent of sorts countermanded only by an intent more determined. conciousness is qualified and quantified by the prescence and degree of intent. and empathy. the singularity, something from nothing, no matter how super dense and size relative, defy our conventional understanding of the universe. before the beginning of time...um... im still of two minds, which one is mine again?

@MattBell I’m absolutely bewildered by it all and have given up trying to understand.

Direct experience...maybe.

ok so this thing is where? your minds eye is where? it is made of what? goes where, does what when you are sleeping. creates concepts that don't exist consciousness is not acquired by the body, but instead the other way round, borred from the earth and in due course returned. WE are not really here, our bodies have us on speaker for the time being.

@MattBell We are here. Temporarily but we're here. Try not to think about it. It's going to happen eventually, try to prolong that. There's nothing any of us can do about it. Enjoy your time on this earth while you're here. Don't dwell on it too much, or you'll have to seek professional help. This is why people invented religion I guess.

we are the software. expressed through a biological computer. broadcasting from...coding written by.... in the language of life- DNA and with only 4 letters/markers no less. all contained in the nucleus of a cell. more information than the entire 30 odd volumes of the encyclopaedia brittanica. the chances of all this happening? is a one in a very large number chance, pages of exponents. there are less atoms in the observable universe. roughly 3 trillion in your body alone.

@MattBell Just as the thousands of letters used to write it do not tell you what a novel means so all those combinations coded into my DNA do not tell you who I am. The whole is seldom merely the sum of the parts.

consciousness grows the body not the other way round. in order for space time to exist, something would need to be outside of it in order to conceive of it. just as the actual you is when you conceive of spacetime. everything exists as a paradox.the debate over free will/destiny. they are the same thing. yes we are free to forge our way as we please, but if one were capable of the equations everything was has and is predictable, based on cause and effect. hot is cold relative to your perspective, as is up and down though up and down don't exist, rather towards and away from. it seems a little bit silly but every pole can be transposed, humans have both male and female attributes . if you consider the earth to be alive, as i do, then everything dead on the earth is alive too . maybe consciousness is already in our place of death, expressed from there . where do the answers come from? the same place as the questions. i wish i had them all. all i know is that more is easily possible, and looking more likely all the time.

@MattBell Sorry but that seems absurd. How would consciousness grow a body?

everything that is , is conscious, is conscious energy. of which we are expressions. the body needs consciousness, consciousness chooses the body. a slither, like a heel cutting from a plant, so that the source may live vicariously though us. there is no right or wrong per say, whatever works for you. Your job, if you will, here, is to experience. to contribute when the earths energy of which we have borrowed is returned , as we return.

the stars do not create the light, the light creates the stars.

you don't have a soul, you are a soul, you have a body. everything IS conscious energy, we don't exist relative to this frequency reality. our bodies are borrowed energy. in the morning we awaken, again reaccepted by the body. gradually and eventually it is returned hopefully having had enough time to achieve a perpetual and harmonic frequency. or nO one knows who cares S D and RnR