On 19/06/2017 12:35 pm, Kim Jones wrote:
Jun 2017, at 12:15 pm, Bruce Kellett <bhkell...@optusnet.com.au> wrote:

That sounds remarkably like the "many minds" interpretation of quantum mechanics. This is 
disfavoured by most scientists because it leaves the physics of the billions of years before the 
emergence of the first "conscious" creature unresolved -- the first consciousness would 
cause an almighty collapse on the many minds reading.

Bruce
How do these scientists know for sure that conscious creatures didn't evolve elsewhere 
before the Earth? How can we be sure that conscious observers have been around since 
"the beginning"...

I presume you mean "haven't been around since the beginning"?

Well, assuming that consciousness requires a modicum of structure and stability, then we can be quite sure that there was no consciousness before the cosmological evolution of some stable structure following the big bang -- of the order of several million (or billion) years. I am not so terracentric as to require that the only possible consciousness evolved on earth.

The aim of physics in general, and quantum theory in particular, is to understand the evolution of the universe in terms that do not require the presence of mind or consciousness. Mind and consciousness are merely epiphenomena on the vastness of the physical universe: they are not central.

Bruce

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