Aren't materialists really arguing that the physical

>>1550027
I'm part of the physical world. I'm alive. So are my dog and my tomato plants.
I don't understand what you mean.

>>1550027
No I believe that's specifically a type of pantheism

The "physical world" is not alive. Specific pieces of the physical world are organized and operate in a way we arbitrarily call life. The matter itself is not alive, the system is, and only for specific durations and in specific contexts.

>>1550027

Life is an emergent property of universes like ours. You could see that as life being "coded in" to the whole thing I guess, and you wouldn't be too far wrong, but it would make the term "life" so general as to be meaningless so it doesn't seem a useful position to me.

>>1550154
Where does awareness fit into this?

DUDE
PANPSYCHISM
LMAO

>>1550197
Define 'awareness'.

>>1550216
I don't know haha, such a fundamental thing is hard to define in words. Knowing, seeing, sensing, feeling, perceiving, and conceiving are all contingent on awareness if that gives you a better idea

>>1550260
I think you mean what most people call 'consciousness'. I don't know entirely, but I believe it has something to do with the brain's self regulatory capacity. How would a brain now if it is functioning correctly if it wasn't, in some way, monitoring its own processes?

The funny thing is, most of those things you listed aren't even primarily handled by your conscious mind, and it only receives what basically amounts to a summary of that data.
It really is a fascinating subject though, and I highly recommend this series of lectures from Stanford if you want to know more about it.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL848F2368C90DDC3D

>>1550307
>How would a brain now
know*

>>1550307
The heart of my inquiry could be rephrased "how does the brain, or anything really, know or monitor anything?" If it's all just material, if awareness and/or consciousness is material, doesn't that mean that material is conscious and aware?

>>1550382
Computation.
The material that composes your brain is arranged in such a way that it is capable of computing, and from that computing comes all of those complex systems you are referring to.

Computation is a very complicated subject, but if you have any specific questions, I try to explain further or, at least, direct you somewhere.

>>1550426
Then what is the difference between life and the complex machines we've created, if not awareness? If computation were the whole answer, why don't we consider computers to be aware like we consider other animals to be?

>>1550510
Truth is, science doesn't fully understand the most deeply rooted questions about consciousness and what life is. The simplest answer to your question would be that computers just aren't advanced enough at computing to be considered life-tier. Humans can't match in 50 years what evolution did in 2 billion.

Not the same guy from before btw.

>>1550510
Because the forms of awareness that they are currently capable of are very limited in nature, and they, of course, require us to design and implement any form of consciousness they could have. Our understanding of consciousness being what it is, you can understand the difficulties that are faced.

As powerful as our computer are, they are still quite a ways away from a brain, and the software might be even further.
We have modeled simple things like flat worms down to every neuron though.
http://www.artificialbrains.com/openworm
I think that's pretty cool.

we don't know what life is. You hear all the time that we don't know what consciousness is but you never hear that we don't know what life is because thats far more embarassing

>>1550027
>the physical world is alive?
Only a select few cosmologists, like Lee Smolin, that claim black holes generate other universes, complete with preservation of information, and natural selection applying over it on top of that.

The Life of the Cosmos is a book he wrote for a lay audience on the topic.

>>1552550
Homeostasis, organization (containing at least 1 cell), metabolism, response to stimuli, species-wide general ability to reproduce and to evolve.

Biologists yell at each other over the particulars, it's mostly fringy xenobiologists trying to redefine life so that they can scream life was found outside Earth at the first sign.