THE BIG QUESTIONS
THE MOST PROFOUND MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE.
The Ultimate Question
Science, the key to the universe.
EVERYTHING IS PHYSICS
Mummy where do I come from?

I AM
Made of atoms
Nothing
Held together by forces
The result of Initial conditions
A gene replicator
The life tree

FREE WILL
(free will is an illusion)
I AM A ROBOT
ALFRED'S LAW ON FREE WILL
Life is a lottery
The illusion of the selfmade man

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CONSCIOUSNESS, THINKING AND BRAINFUNCTION
Organic thinking machines
Aware of self, aware of ones thoughts, consciousness
Consciousness
Levels of consciousness
Sophisticated consciousness
The self aware universe
The schizophrenic universe
Humans are studying humans
On solipsism
Think about thinking
Thought Experiment
Some thoughts
Deduce the mechanisms of deduction
Drugs
Immortality, low quality brains and infinity
Denying death
Soul death

The measure of intelligence
The question of dolphin intelligence
Trapped in Plato's cave
All is not knowable
Reason, instinct and intelligence

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PSYCHOLOGY AND PROGRAMS
I am a sum of programs
Speech
Memes and Brain viruses
Some differences between a computer and a brain.
Dreams

MEMORY
Duplication?
Forgetfulness
Memory compression
No wasted space

THOUGHTS ON LIFE
Have a nice day!
Death (been there done that!)
Evolution stinks
Stage two evolution
Love
Parenting
Mother you had me I never had you
Breeding
Genetic greed
Genetic suicide

THE BIG QUESTIONS

To ponder existence
THE MOST PROFOUND MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE.
At some point in the history of the universe, an intelligent conscious lifeform was the very first consciousness to ponder its own and the universes' existence with the questions; "What am I and how did I come to exist? What is this universe and how did it come to exist?" This would have been the moment when the universe itself became conscious.
Intelligent consciousness is a product of the universe and therefore part of the universe, so when it ponders existence the universe is pondering its own existence.

THE ULTIMATE QUESTION
The Question of all questions.

WHY SOMETHING RATHER THAN NOTHING?

WHY NOT NOTHING?

Why does anything exist at all?
Why does the universe exist?
Why life, why consciousness?
The unanswerable question.

A god certainly does not answer the something question because a god would be something. It would beg the question; why a god rather than nothing?
Nothing for nothing
An immaterial god cannot exist, if there is a god it cannot be made of nothing, something cannot be made of nothing, something has to be made of something.

Okay so say your god 'done it', the question then is; How? Magic? Obviously not good enough. I want to know the precise mechanisms.
How this god created this universe obviously needs to be explaned. It willed it into existence is really no explanation at all, it is no different to waving a magic wand.

The Intelligence Threshold
Mommy where did I come from?
Any intelligent entity would want to know what it is and how it came to exist.
Vice versa
Any conscious entity that does not ask these questions is not intelligent.

How a person answers these questions is the most important factor in determining the level of their intelligence. In other words a persons intelligence can be measured by how much their worldview correlates with actual reality.
I.Q. is just one of the many factors in measuring overall intelligence.
Curiosity is another vital component of intelligence.

Science, the key to the universe.
The only rational method capable of answering these questions is science.

SCIENCE
Science is the employment of reason in the search for truth.
There is only one reason based system for investigating and explaining the workings of nature.
It is the only intelligent method capable of informing us as to the true nature of reality.
It is the only method for discovering the facts that help us understand and define reality.
Science is the only path to true knowledge.
Science is the only logical method available for sorting out fact from fiction, truth from fallacy, reality from myth.
All other methods are arbitrary and inconsistent and therefore irrational, meaningless nonsense.
There are two methods of exploring, defining and explaining reality; science and thumb suck.
True knowledge is power and the power of science is indisputable.

Science keeps humanity out of the dark ages. It keeps us from paranoid panic every time there is a solar or lunar eclipse or a lightning strike. It keeps us (well some of us anyway) from running around casting spells on each other or burning people at the stake or throwing people into ponds to see if they float.

An evidence based reality
I don't believe in anything that is not scientifically verifiable. So I don't believe in ghosts, magic, witches, wizards, spells, voodoo, levitation, astro-travelling, the healing power of crystal, feng shui, fortune telling, astrology, faith healing, witchdoctors, jujus, tokeloshes, raping infants as a cure for aids, reflexology, homeopathy, psychic-powers, auras, aliens, a god or gods, devils, demons, spirits, souls, etc.
I don't believe in the supernatural.
I don't believe in anything not backed by evidence.
Its absurd to claim truth without evidence.
Its absurd to be certain of the truth without evidence.
You can only be certain of truth if it is backed by evidence.

"I wish to propose for the reader's favourable consideration a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true." --
Bertrand Russell; British philosopher, educator, mathematician, and social critic (1872-1970).

"It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence." William Kingdon Clifford (1845-79)

The floodgate
If you believe something not supported by evidence then you can believe in anything and everything. Then your choices are arbitary.

"The sleep of reason brings forth monsters." title of a Goya painting

Everything is physics
Absolutely everything that exists and happens in this universe can be reduced to physics. Stars and planets, chemistry, biology, life and even human behavior and consciousness is all physics.

"All science is either physics or stamp collecting." Ernest Rutherford

Science and technology
Technology is a byproduct of science.
Technology is the only tangible thing that separates humans from the rest of life. Without technology humans just eat and breed like the rest of biology. When searching for evidence of intelligence in the universe, we search for evidence of technology like radio waves or laser signals.

The future
Hopefully in the future technology will rescue us from the daily drudgery, from those menial, mindless, dreary chores that most of us have to do day after day.

Real science
Real science is driven by curiosity not by ambition and greed. Ambitious science, science motivated by the need for recognition or power or money is often bad science.

Mathematics
Mathematics is the most powerfull tool in the universe.
Without mathematics there would be no science and technology.
Without maths civiliszation crumbles.

I believe in maths, not magic.

Made of Atoms
I am interested in atoms because I am made of atoms.
I am a clump of atoms that is aware that it is a clump of matter arranged in a pattern that enables thinking to take place.
A clump of matter arranged in a complex pattern, self aware and conscious.

I am a product of this universe.
I am made of stardust. The elements I am made of were produced in stars billions of years ago.
The matter that I am made from, is billions of years old.
I am a product of chemistry.
I am a product of evolution.

I am nothing
I am 99,9999999999999% empty space. The nucleus of an atom occupies only 10 to the minus 15 of the total volume of an atom. The rest is empty space. All matter is mostly empty space.

I am held together by forces
A force that keeps quarks together to form nucleons, nucleons together to form nucleuses.
A force that keeps electrons in orbit around nucleuses to form atoms, atoms together to form molecules, molecules together to form cells.
A force that keeps cells together to form me.
Forces are the glue that keep us together.

I am a complex system.
Humans (specifically human brains) are the most complex structure in the solar system and one of the more complex systems in the universe. Only other intelligent, conscious entities can be as, or more complex.

Initial conditions.
I am the result of initial conditions. The genes I inherited are an initial condition. The Big Bang is the ultimate initial condition.

a Gene replicator
I am the product of a collection of genes, temporary co-operating together, to maximize their spreading potential.
The only function of all life, from the simplest life form to the most complex (i.e. humans), is gene replication.
We take in raw materials, give off waste products and spread our genes.
Genetic replication is the driving force behind my existence.
I am a gene replicator.
An organic thinking machine. Geared for one thing and that is gene replication.
I am a gene factory.

My skin
My skin, the boundary between me and the rest of the universe.
Inside my skin is me and outside, the rest of the universe.

Intelligent consciousness is knowing what you are, not just that you exist.

Mummy where do I come from
The question, "where do I come from?", can be broken into two questions.
Where do my atoms come from?
and...
where do my genes come from?
The matter and the pattern.
The atoms I am made of were mostly made in stars. We are made of stardust.
The matter that stars are made of ultimately came from the Big Bang.
Most of the matter I am made of is over 10 billion years old.
The arrangement of that matter evolved.
Matter does not evolve, only patterns evolve.
And where does the Big Bang come from?
Well this is still being intensely researched and may involve concepts on the edge, and maybe beyond the bounds of human intelligence. Concepts like curved time.
Evolution on the other hand is a fairly basic system and can be easily understood by any educated human with slightly above average intelligence and not infected by religion. (unlike half the population of America) Evolution is a direct consequence of valence bonding. Once the first self replicating molecules formed, evolution was on it's way.
For more information on evolution I recommend the excellent book, 'The Blind Watchmaker', by Richard Dawkins.

Exponential genes
So where do my genes come from?
from 2 parents ......... 1 generation ago
4 grandparents...........2 generations ago
8 great grandparents...3........"....
16 gt gt grandparents..4
32 ......... .......... ...... 5
64 ......... .......... ...... 6
128
256
512
1 024
2 048
4 096
8 192 ....... ......... ....13
16 384
32 768
65 536....... ......... ....16 This is already more genes than in the humane genome.
131 072 .... ......... ....17.. at an average of 30 years a generation this is only 510 years ago
262 144 .... ......... ....18
524 288..... ......... ....19
1 048 576.. ......... ....20 generation ago. Only 600 years ago.
These figures discount inbreeding.

The further you go back the larger this figure gets but the world population diminishes until your gene source is larger than the population of earth. Obviously your real gene source number peaks out and starts to diminish long, long before that stage. Exactly when, and how large your gene source actually gets I don’t know but it is obviously limited by the number of genes in the human genome. (less than 40 000)

The life tree
I am related to almost all life on this planet. Some of my genes are millions of years old.

I am a unique combination of genes, yet almost none of my genes are unique. The only unique genes I possess are mutated genes.

In summation
I am made of atoms (quarks and leptons).
I am the product of a collection of genes, genes that have successfully replicated in the past, temporally cooperating together to maximize their replicating potential.

ON FREE WILL

I AM A ROBOT
I didn't design myself. Nobody designs themselves.
The level of my intelligence, my thoughts, behaviors and my perception of reality are a direct consequence of how my brain is constructed.
The structure of my brain is a consequence of the initial structure, which was determined by my genes, and how that structure was affected by the environment i.e. the experiences that my brain went through. Unlike computers there is no clear distinction between hardware and software in brains. Experiences actually change the wiring patterns of the brain.
What I am and think, is the result of my genes and how the resultant thinking structure (my brain) was, and is, affected by the environment.
I am an Organic Thinking Machine!

ALFRED'S LAW ON FREE WILL
Free will is a logical impossibility, it cannot exist, it is an illusion.

No thinking apparatus can have designed itself.
All thinking is a direct function of the structure of the thinking apparatus.
All thinking is done by apparatuses that did not design themselves.
All thoughts, opinions, choices, decisions, behaviors and fantasies are a direct consequence of the structure of the brains that formulated them, and brains are not responsible for their own structure.
Therefore free will is a logical impossibility, it cannot exist, it is an illusion. No thinking apparatus can have free will.
Because you did not design your brain, you cannot decide to be intelligent, talented, etc.
Philosophically to have free will you would have to have complete control over your thoughts, you would have to be able to decide exactly what you were going to think.
But logically,
You cannot think of a thought before you have thought of that thought and decide whether you are going to think that thought or not.

Free will is logically impossible because it is impossible for a thinking apparatus to be responsible for its own structure and functionality, and because ultimately it is not logically possible to decide what your next thought is going to be.

No thinking apparatus can have free choice/will.

Life is a lottery.
Everything is luck! (random chance) You may be intelligent, rich, good looking, successful, living in Canada etc., or a retarded mutation living in Liberia. Even such attributes as hard working and ambitious are a result of random chance. Nobody decides to be stupid, ugly or even lazy. (Often these faults are used to justify poverty in capitalism, as in the rich deserve to be rich because they are intelligent and hard working and the poor, poor because they are lazy and stupid.) (On the surface people decide to be lazy but the fact that they have decided to be lazy is a consequence of the structure of their brains.) Nobody deserves anything. Stephen Hawkin's deserves his induction into the Royal Society as much as he deserves motor-neuron disease. You are what you are, and that includes your ability to change. Who you are, what you are, where you are, are direct consequences of the deck you were dealt.
Life is a lottery.
We are all just a product of evolution, a product of this universe.
Ultimately no one is responsible for their actions. Ultimately there is no free will, we are machines; Organic Thinking Machines!

The great nature/nurture debate
Whenever the shaping influences (causal factors) of human behavior and personality are discussed, the discussion always centers around whether the traits were inherited or learned, a result of genetics or the environment or what combination thereof.
This debate has been going on for generations yet free will is almost never seriously considered as a factor, quiet simply because it is not a factor.

Humans cling to the concept of free will with even more desperation than they cling to the concept of an afterlife, imortality and soul.

The illusion of the self made man
The self made man is where he is because he was at the right place at the right time and he had a brain that made the right decisions.

Note;
from some of the feedback I have been getting I see the need to clarify that having no free will is not synonymous with determinism. I don’t think that we have no free will because the future is predetermined but because we have no control over the design and therefore the functioning and thoughts of our brains. I believe the future is impossible to predict not only because of the impossibility of gathering all the needed information but because of quantum uncertainty. If the future were predetermined it would be as good as if it had already happened. We would be living in a clockwork universe and the future would not really be the future.

CONTINUE
To page 2
CONSCIOUSNESS, THINKING AND BRAINFUNCTION