[ExI] The Soul (was: Re: No gods, no meaning?)

[Jason Resch]

Giulio,

Your book sounds fascinating! I just ordered a copy and can't wait to read
it.

Best,

Jason

On Sat, Apr 25, 2020, 3:03 AM Giulio Prisco via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Jason is right, scientific theories of the soul are already published
> and out there. Not by lesser scientists, but by top Nobel-level
> scientists. I outline some of these theories in my book:
> https://turingchurch.net/tales-of-the-turing-church-23f4aa4050c6
>
> On Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 9:23 AM Jason Resch via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 1:34 AM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> On 24/04/2020 23:57, Jason Resch wrote:
> >> > I'm currently writing a book on the science of the soul
> >>
> >> Oh, wow!
> >>
> >> You realise how revolutionary this is?
> >>
> >> Before you write your book, I think you should publish your scientific
> >> evidence for the existence of a soul.
> >>
> >
> > The evidence and theories are already published and out there. These
> theories aren't my theories, I only demonstrate what these theories imply
> for the properties of the soul (consciousness).
> >
> >
> >>
> >> I always thought it was just a fantasy, some non-falsifiable made-up
> >> idea to make it easier to control people.
> >
> >
> > You're conscious aren't you?
> >
> > You probably are thinking "I have a consciousness, but I don't have a
> soul"
> >
> > Consider if my book shows how well-established scientific theories
> (special relativity, quantum mechanics, the computational theory of mind,
> mathematical platonism, etc.) -- all standard theories by scientists in
> those domains--inevitably lead to the conclusion that your consciousness is
> eternal, uncreated, immortal, can reincarnate, resurrect, and is in a
> manner one with all other consciousnesses.
> >
> > If your consciousness indeed possesses these properties, would it not be
> more apt to call it a soul?
> >
> >>
> >> Be prepared for lots of questions. Personally, I'm interested to know:
> >>
> >> What is it, exactly?
> >
> >
> > Consciousness.
> >
> >>
> >> Does your soul remember your past?
> >
> >
> > There are situations in which you will find yourself in a position where
> you have consolidated memories from many experienced lives. For instance,
> awaking as a Jupiter brain that just spent the last hour living the lives
> of every being on a particular planet it chose to simulate.
> >
> > To put this in a more human-relatable example, do you remember playing
> as Link from Zelda, and Mario from Super Mario Brothers? Now consider the
> perspective of a billion year old uploaded being who has lived a million
> lifetimes in fully immersive VR (and uses memory blockers while in game)
> and wakes up after dying in the game.
> >
> >> How does it relate to the mind and the brain?
> >
> >
> > Consciousness is a result of the computation performed by the brain or
> any other computational substrate. If you believe in mathematical
> platonism, some minds can exist as the mathematical equivalent of a
> Boltzmann brain, i.e. as a Turing machine with unlimited computational
> resources where that Turing machine exists purely as a mathematical object
> without a base universe. But those are probably far more rare compared to
> brains that evolve from simpler systems such as ourselves.
> >
> >>
> >> What is it made of?
> >
> >
> > Patterns of information; computation.
> >
> >>
> >> What is its mass?
> >
> >
> > Information has no mass, however the machinery of one particular
> instance (incarnation) of a mind can have a mass.
> >
> >>
> >> Do dogs have souls? (Socialists, Canadians, hamsters, goldfish, etc...?)
> >
> >
> > As far as we know. Though I don't know if it can ever be proved, the
> cost of being wrong (wrongly assuming something doesn't have a soul) can be
> very high. Descartes for example performed vivisections on his own dogs,
> under the assumption that they has no consciousness and despite their cries
> were not suffering.
> >
> >>
> >> How does it arise? (can we make one in the laboratory?)
> >>
> >
> > Many computer programs running on our laptops or phones may possess some
> minimum consciousness. Consciousness is awareness of information.
> Self-driving cars probably have at least insect-level consciousness.
> >
> > I like to say that the "If statement" is the atom of consciousness,
> since it is the most basic aspect in programming where a system can react
> differently based on the state of some information. For there to be
> information, some system or processed must be informed, which means that
> system or process has to enter a different state based on that information.
> >
> >>
> >> and, of course, what is your proof that it exists?
> >>
> >
> > Roughly it comes down to these two things:
> > 1. The fact that you know you are conscious (consciousness exists) + 2.
> The rational conclusions that can be drawn from assuming our best
> scientific theories are true, which imply all the aforementioned properties
> of consciousness.
> >
> >>
> >> I'm sure there will be many more questions, if you can demonstrate that
> >> you're actually on to something.
> >
> >
> > Let me know if you have any others.
> >
> > Jason
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