There is a Non-Physical Basis of Human Consciousness

My opponent has given some examples and anecdotes of a physical basis' of consciousness. To be sure there are many such examples more which he did not cite and we could fill many books with them all. That is not why I am here today however. I am here to show the illogicality of attributing consciousness too only a physical basis and no other basis or plausible origination. Disregarding the pseudoscienctific, semantic and mystic we require the study of physics to understand what physical is. As such the physical has been, to the best of our still developing understanding, reduced to some fundamental laws and theories about the logical operation of our universe. I would like to summarize briefly some of these laws. -EntropyEntropy is associated with the amount of disorder or order in an isolated system such as our universe. Higher entropy is associated with greater disorder. Disorder is also associated with equilibrium, that is to say in a maximally disordered system it can be said properties are distributed evenly in relation to the maxima. (6) -Shannon Entropy When viewed in terms of information theory, the entropy state function is simply the amount of information (in the Shannon sense) that would be needed to specify the full microstate of the system. In the modern microscopic interpretation of entropy in statistical mechanics, entropy is the amount of additional information needed to specify the exact physical state of a system, given its thermodynamic specification. (1) (2) (6) -Second law of thermodynamicsThe entropy of an isolated system, such as our universe, does not decrease. Rather it increases to thermodynamic equilibrium. That is to say it becomes in totality more disordered and in greater equilibrium forward in time. And never the other way around in totality. (5) -InformationIn Thermodynamics, information is any kind of event that affects the state of a dynamic system that can interpret the information. (7) -Dynamical systemThe dynamical system concept is a mathematical formalization for any fixed "rule" which describes the time dependence of a point's position in its ambient space. Time can be measured by integers, by real or complex numbers or can be a more general algebraic object, losing the memory of its physical origin, and the ambient space may be simply a set, without the need of a smooth space-time structure defined on it. (3) 1. Information is physical and non-physical, consciousness must use non-physical information. What we can see from this is that information, widely confused by the layman, has multiple qualities in physics. Information is both a property of matter such as thermodynamic entropy and it is also a specification of a system that is in addition to it's physical properties as in shannon entropy. In physics matter, mass and energy are defined specific unchanging quantities this is a form of information, but not enough to make a brain by any measure. These are what can be absolutely quantified, the physical. In addition these physical arrangements are bounded by entropy. However in information theory, information is not restrained in the same way. In information theory and Shannon entropy information is an additive quality to thermodynamic entropy, it is not a fixed sum unaltering through time and space marching to a certain fate. It is dynamic. Dynamic systems can and do exist non-physically and theoretically. That is to say information exists independent of the physical and is not wholly a property of the physical. Instead the physical and the arrangement of the physical in time and space is a property of information and physics. And only by interacting in a dynamic system can physical properties have any meaningful organization whatsoever. Without non physical information physical properties are superfluous and would never form a structure such as a brain.2. Consciousness can not be constructed without information but it can be constructed without the physical If we can say consciousness manifests itself in a brain. We can also say that consciousness is a product of the dynamic interactions within the same physical system. These same interactions can also be described mathematically and mathematic operations can be simulated by a sufficient computer. No known computer today contains anywhere near enough complexity to simulate a human brain or any brain for that matter in true to form replication. This is sufficient to excuse a failure to date to replicate a sentient being digitally. Today although we can and do simulate finite spaces of the real world true to form all the way down to the quantum soup. Physicist are confident in their ability to simulate individual atoms and constituent particles in physics and their interactions when sufficient computational power is available. (1) One might make the argument that a simulation of reality is done on a computer and a computer is itself containing physical properties. So therefore the simulation is of physical origin. However this argument has two flaws. First is that a computer is both physical and a dynamic system. Second is that our physical world could itself be a simulation begging a chicken and egg paradox, did the physical manifest first or the simulation. If we can simulate a dynamic world than who is to say we ourselves are not simulated without evidence. That which is paradoxical is not absolute so one cannot say consciousness is absolutely physical.3. Consciousness as a dynamic system What we experience in our conscious thoughts and minds are not a true to form replication of reality or the physical world. Instead they are constructions. One might say they are subjective, but if subjective than this subjectivity could be easily described as inherent to the uniqueness of the dynamic system. We can communicate information and ideas to one another, and such person may reconstruct this information in their own unique dynamic system and experience their own interpretation of our consciousness. In fact there is research into brain prosthesis using dynamic systems theory and delocalization to model and transmit consciousness and memory.(9) Dynamic systems theory is even used in cognitive science and neuroscience. This would suggest consciousness is capable of replication non physically. But what mathematical model does consciousness use to think? A growing respected field is Bayesian cognitive science, relying on Bayesian statistics and Bayesian mathematics(10). These dynamic process' can be modeled in information theory, wholly non physical models which filter observables and makes use of shannon entropy and shannon information which has a non physical basis.(11) This would suggest a non physical basis to consciousness does exist. More accurately consciousness has properties described in mathematics that are applied logic in highly structured shannon entropy localizations. (1) http://en.wikipedia.org... (2) http://micro.stanford.edu... (3) http://en.wikipedia.org... http://arxiv.org...Read more: http://www.physicsforums.com... http://arxiv.org...Read more: http://www.physicsforums.com... (5) http://en.wikipedia.org...(6) http://en.wikipedia.org...(7) http://en.wikipedia.org...(8) http://en.wikipedia.org...(9) http://arxiv.org...(10) http://en.wikipedia.org...(11) https://www.math.nyu.edu...