But before I was born I could think of a time before I was born.
If I'd call out it would answer.
I don't understand that last sentence; "if I'd call out it would answer", but there was consciousness around before you were born. The universe was around before any of us was born. However, consciousness anywhere and more importantly
at any time necessitates the conditions that made it arise everywhere.
The Universe exists whether there are people or not. There is no life on the Moon and yet it exists.
Consciousness anywhere necessitates the conditions that made it arise everywhere.
That is absurd. What an over inflated sense of importance. Do you have any idea of the size of the universe?? Any idea at all??
We are insignificant.
I don't think it is the size that matters. That size means nothing without consciousness. What an empty place it would be without any consciousness. In fact, I think it wouldn't
be at all.
Absence of a cognitive system to generate evidence (from environmental information) that the universe existed is not the same thing as how it existed/exists minus sensory representation and rational apprehension or technical description.
I beg to differ. It might very well be that the universe is reliant on a technical description of what it is, in fact, we uncover more and more of that description, it has surprised mathematicians how much of the universe that we have been able to uncover using descriptions (mathematical relations in this case) and how little that just
is without relying on any description (the fundamental constants for example).
Either way, I think the universe
needs consciousness to have a reality in which it can exist.
Seems to me that the (inert) universe contains consciousness as a potentiality.
Then again it may well equally contain the lack of consciousness as another potentiality.
All (or much)may be revealed when/if we discover other sentient entities elsewhere in the universe that seem to have arisen entirely independently of the life forms we are already acquainted with.
Or if it can be shown that this is vanishingly unlikely....
Might be that this potential consciousness needs to be manifested somewhere at some time in order to make the potential of the universe manifest. The idea being that there has to be a distinction from what exists and nothing, and consciousness is that distinction. Cause what distinguishes the universe from nothing at all if there is no awareness of it? In what reality does it exist then?