Conscousness - the awareness of nothing?

Discussion in 'General Philosophy' started by Quantum Quack, Jan 2, 2007.

  1. Quantum Quack Life's a tease... Valued Senior Member

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    Test statement:
    "Consciousness can be described in part as the awareness of nothing. For if we are unaware of nothingness we would be unconscious."

    Ok guys have fun....

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  3. John Connellan Valued Senior Member

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    I thought everybody was unaware of nothingness?!

    Define nothingness anyway.
    Is nothingness = nothing?
     
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  5. Quantum Quack Life's a tease... Valued Senior Member

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    I was just thinking since posting about an angle on this:

    "Say we are looking at a train on a track travelling at a given steady speed. if we look just in front of the train we see the nothingness [space] that the train is about to fill or if we look at the back of the train we see the nothingness [ space ] the train has left behind.

    It is true the train has moved the air out of it's path and simply translated itself into that space however that space still exists other wise the air nor the train would be able to fill it. However the space that the train has to fill doesn't exist until the train fills it as that space is in the future and not the present. [ If a truck happens to get onto the track before the train gets to the space the train will never fill that space as the collision with the truck will prevent it from doing so]"
     
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  7. §outh§tar is feeling caustic Registered Senior Member

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    Define 'awareness' and 'unaware'
     
  8. Quantum Quack Life's a tease... Valued Senior Member

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    so therefore to be aware of motion one has to be aware of nothingness both of the future and past......given that the present moment is of zero duration....

    and the only way to be unaware of motion or change is to be unconscious
     
  9. John Connellan Valued Senior Member

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    ok

    It is true.

    I don't understand this.

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    The space is always! Space is not created or destroyed in your example.

    But the space always exists so i don't know where this is going and how it relates to conciousness
     
  10. John Connellan Valued Senior Member

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    I see your definition of nothingness now. It relates to matter. I thought u might have meant nothingness as in Nothing, not even space.
     
  11. §outh§tar is feeling caustic Registered Senior Member

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    Are you defining the words circularly?
     
  12. Quantum Quack Life's a tease... Valued Senior Member

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    hi Southstar, Yes with this particular example I guess I am a little.
    Actually your comment reminds me of a discussion I had a while ago here that proved that the truth must be by it's very nature circular in logic and not only circular but simultaneously so [ non-sequencial]....interesting discussion too I might add.

    To be conscious one has to be able to contrast every-THING with no-THING other wise there would be no where for anything to move from or to.
    So the "seeing" of no_thing is essential to being conscious.
     
  13. Prince_James Plutarch (Mickey's Dog) Registered Senior Member

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    Quantum Quack:

    Space is the essence of somethingness, not nothingness. Moreover, we cannot be directly aware of nothingness, only through relating it as a negative. "Nothing happened today" means "the lack of something (in a relative sense) occurred today".
     
  14. Prince_James Plutarch (Mickey's Dog) Registered Senior Member

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    Also, Quantum Quack:

    It is impossible for the present to be of zero-duration. If it was of zero-duration, it would not exist. The present is technically an infinitely small interval of time, and more generally, a relative instance.
     
  15. Quantum Quack Life's a tease... Valued Senior Member

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    so how would you descirbe future space or movement? It is true that things move but move to where?
     
  16. Quantum Quack Life's a tease... Valued Senior Member

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    Actually PJ youcaught me there, I failed to be dilligent about the wording and yes at present I tend to agree that the present is an infinitley small duration event horizon however I am not totally convinced that it isn't indeed zero duration in absolutum. I have reason to suspect that it could be thus but have yet to clarify the logic needed to get there...
     
  17. Quantum Quack Life's a tease... Valued Senior Member

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    you may recall my zero point theories...
     
  18. Prince_James Plutarch (Mickey's Dog) Registered Senior Member

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    Quantum Quack:

    I rather envision movement through space like movement through water. When one moves through water, one moves through it whilst simulteneously being surrounded by it. Similar with space, save that one is also oneself made of space and space is properly not stopped by your body (as in, distance doesn't vanish and such things).

    I eagerly await your argument. It sounds fascinating.

    Yes. Those were very interesting to discuss.
     
  19. rocket art Registered Member

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    I'd like to share also another of my 'rocket philosophy' as reaction to the thread:

    "It takes one to know everything before he can say he knows nothing. I may not know everything, so I would not say I know nothing." -rocket
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2007
  20. Meanwhile Banned Banned

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    Talking about not knowing everything, and I'm sure some of you might have experienced a peculiar state of stupefaction, a sort of disconnect with everything including yourself, existing in a moment without time, a total blankness. More often it happens upon waking instantly from a profound sleep especially during an expressly stressed-out interim like a personal prolonged affliction. It also happened to me three times upon receiving the news that my father, later my cat, later my best friend had just died. I was aware during all those incidents, but I wasn't even aware that I was aware. Total blank. Blank of the ego?
     
  21. Zephyr Humans are ONE Registered Senior Member

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    I think that's "shock"

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  22. Meanwhile Banned Banned

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  23. Kron Maxwell's demon Registered Senior Member

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    I believe that we think in terms of somethingness. There are lots of different kinds of something, only one kind of nothing.

    It's like heat and cold; at first glance, you can define temperature in terms of flowing heat, or flowing cold. But there's a fundamental difference: There is a point of absolutely no heat (0 K) but no point of no cold (infinity K, which is unachievable).
     

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