this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

It depends on if you think consciousness is something that emerges from information exchange systems or some higher level "thing" we don't understand yet, and I lean towards the idea that consciousness emerges from information exchange systems. If that's the case, then the universe, while containing massive areas of complexity, isn't entirely exchanging information, only in isolated areas that are borrowing energy even as entropy broadly increases. I would be more open the idea of some possibility of consciousness occurring in the hyper-low entropy state of the very early universe when everything was much closer together and there was enough energy to connect a whole universe worth of information in localized states.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Who knows what energetic structures exist within galactic super clusters? Energy is constantly exchanged in the universe.

[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

There are massive problems with ideas like individual galaxies making up parts of some kind of galactic neural network where the information being exchanged takes place of billions of years to form some "super thought."

Not the least of which is that it doesn't say anything, it's a stoner thought that for all I know is totally true, but it's so impossible to either prove, model or test, and it doesn't provide a more plausible explanation for anything.

We can just as easily say that a handful of gravel I pick up may form some kind of neural network because technically they are sharing information in subtle ways. A panpsychist might say "exactly!" and I just say "Why? What does this idea explain better than the models we have now?"

The other huge problem is the expansion of the universe and the way light behaves. I am not sure the cosmic super entity is doing so hot considering how rapidly it's tearing itself apart. Since light doesn't really experience time either way, those "thoughts" trapped in patterns of light rays basically had one moment of thought and then dispersed so far and wide that it was essentially instant. I could easily come up with workarounds that keep the idea alive, but then at that point aren't we just desperately trying to find God?

[–] m_f@discuss.online 1 points 1 week ago

I think the definition of consciousness meaning "internal state that observably correlates to external state" would clarify here. Gravel wouldn't be conscious, because it has no internal state that we can point to and say it correlates to external state. Galaxies/the universe doesn't either, as far as we can tell. Galaxies don't have internal state that represents e.g. other galaxies, other than including humans in that definition, but it would be more proper IMO to limit the definition the minimum amount of state possible. You don't count the galaxy as having internal state that represents external state, if you can limit that definition to one tiny, self-contained part of the galaxy, i.e. a human brain.

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