The five levels of consciousness

Discuss any topics related to metaphysics (the philosophical study of the principles of reality) or epistemology (the philosophical study of knowledge) in this forum.
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Sy Borg
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Re: The five levels of consciousness

Post by Sy Borg »

I don't understand your symbolic language.

The connections between these things and consciousness may be foundational in terms of the systems that support conscious awareness, but the connections between these things and consciousness as regards the topic seem oblique.

For instance, take gravity and dark energy. What have they to do with consciousness?
Steve3007
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Re: The five levels of consciousness

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I've entered this conversation after it's already quite mature so apologies if I'm going over things that have already been covered.

Greta:
- proto life - stars, planets, viruses, prions
In your categorisation of emergences it's interesting that you place stars and planets on the same level as such things as viruses. A superficial objection to that would be that planets, at least, must be more complex than viruses because they can contain them. What this highlights is that the level of detail with which you examine the object in question is relevant to its categorisation. Taking planets as an example, for the sake of modelling them there are numerous levels of detail with which they can be described, depending on the purpose. Probably the simplest is as a single infinitesimal point particle, or as a perfect sphere with all the mass concentrated at the centre. This is how they're modelled when considering their gravitational interactions with other astronomical bodies. Obviously at this level the question of whether they host viruses, or anything else, is irrelevant. As the model gets more and more sophisticated and accurate it gets more and more complex.

So the question is, in categorising planets like this, to what level of detail are you considering them and why? And couldn't they be arbitrarily moved up and down the list depending on the level you choose?
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The Beast
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Re: The five levels of consciousness

Post by The Beast »

We are living in the Fusion era. I imagine a human being as a collection of prehistoric viruses coming together and evolving into the specialized cells of today. New prions and viruses try every day to become part of humanity in a chemical composition of acceptance. There is a genesis relating all existence to forces of fusion from fission (the BB). Order from chaos. Is it fusion or fission? Inert chemicals becoming living cells evolving sentient capacities. At the frontier of living the prions are just chemical formulations that reproduce under the right conditions. If existence is all there is then the conditions made the differences in the forms. Sentience is the awareness and manipulation of the conditions of existence.
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Sy Borg
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Re: The five levels of consciousness

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Steve3007 wrote:I've entered this conversation after it's already quite mature so apologies if I'm going over things that have already been covered.

Greta:
- proto life - stars, planets, viruses, prions
In your categorisation of emergences it's interesting that you place stars and planets on the same level as such things as viruses. A superficial objection to that would be that planets, at least, must be more complex than viruses because they can contain them. What this highlights is that the level of detail with which you examine the object in question is relevant to its categorisation. Taking planets as an example, for the sake of modelling them there are numerous levels of detail with which they can be described, depending on the purpose. Probably the simplest is as a single infinitesimal point particle, or as a perfect sphere with all the mass concentrated at the centre. This is how they're modelled when considering their gravitational interactions with other astronomical bodies. Obviously at this level the question of whether they host viruses, or anything else, is irrelevant. As the model gets more and more sophisticated and accurate it gets more and more complex.

So the question is, in categorising planets like this, to what level of detail are you considering them and why? And couldn't they be arbitrarily moved up and down the list depending on the level you choose?
Hi Steve, sorry about the slow reply.

You wonder about how to prioritise/categorise an entity like the Earth that are necessarily more complex than humans (and viruses :) yet they seemingly are ostensibly less aware. That may be an assumption but, if the Earth is aware, it's not our kind of external relational awareness because it would be of no use. Further, what we have observed in nature is that spherical and other geometrically tidy entities tend to be simpler than complex plant and animal structures.

Maybe it would be tidier and arguably more aligned with observed and experienced reality to treat cosmic entities large enough to have a core (planetary, stellar and black hole equivalents of a metabolism) on their own scale, based on complexity of their processes? I understand that stars are simpler than planets because the high temperatures create too much turmoil for complex internal structures to emerge (although more is being learned about the complexity of the relationships between stars' layers and their magnetic fields).

While there's various conceptions of dimensions, I'm a fan of the old scale-based definition as in "extent, size, or degree". In that case, planets can be thought of as being of a different dimension to its life forms, and we are in the same sense dimensionally separated from our bacteria.

In such a sliding scale, what might be at the bottom? Maybe neutrinos or WIMPs?
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Re: The five levels of consciousness

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First, I noticed you begin your hierarchy with "beings", which appears to be the same as what we ordinarily regard as "life". What about so called "non-living matter"? Should not your hierarchy begin there?
Finn_Mac wrote: Level 1: Beings that act instinctively: This category could include any type of living thing that doesn't possess consciousness but still lives and reproduces ranging from plant matter such as flowers and trees which have a life cycle but do not possess a consciousness and act out their life cycle, to animals such as bacteria and insects who act purely on instinct.
It seems to me that here you are implying no awareness whatsoever for planets, insects, and microbes. That is how I'm interpreting your phrase "doesn't possess consciousness". If I'm correct, then I'd strongly disagree with this. I believe all living matter possesses awareness of some kind. But perhaps you mean something else?
Level 2: Beings with a basic level of intellect: This category covers animals which possess the ability to communicate, embrace basic feelings and rationalise to a certain extent. This category extends from animals such as fish to more complicated beings such as monkeys, Dolphins and forms of humanoid such as Neanderthals.
I think I get your general idea here, but it seems a bit arbitrary. So a fish has a "basic level of intellect" but not a spider? Where do you draw the line and why? "Basic" is a fairly ambiguous word.
Level 3: Beings that have developed intellect beyond the point of other animals: This category represents beings that can think independently and more broadly and act rationally rather than impulsively and have also developed a more complex way of living such as ourselves.
I have no problem with this, although I must note that basically your "Level 3" is human beings, and your description of this "Level 3 intellect" is basically to say that it's our intellect. Saying it's "independent" and "more broad" and "rational" thinking however, doesn't get to the key point for me. The "key point" which differentiates our intellect from other animals' intellects is that we can talk to ourselves, reason things out in our heads. Animals cannot do this.
Level 4: Advanced beings: Beings that have not been identified but have a strong possibility of existing with superhuman capabilities and advancements.

Level 5: Godlike being(s): the highest form of being capable of existing. This being is so much more refined and intelligent it could have the capability of creating life on immeasurable scales such as the known universes. This type of being is relatively incomprehensible to the human imagination and has been interpreted by humans for centuries.
I have no problem with Levels 4 & 5 generally speaking, and believe both such entities exist. However, your Level 5 being seems to imply there could be only one. Is this correct? Or do you imagine more than one such entity? To me, Level 5 is the Universe Itself, which happens to be a sentient being. Level 4 is other entities existing within it which have intellects superior enough to be placed in this category ---> not nearly on Level 5 but beyond our own sufficiently enough to not be considered "human-like".

In general, I find your classificatory scheme to be a step in the right direction, but it definitely needs some work....
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Re: The five levels of consciousness

Post by Lark_Truth »

Finn_Mac, I think that yours is a brilliant theory.
What I don't understand is this: if we are on level three, then how are we supposed to get to level four? From a religious standpoint, I can understand that it is possible for someone to be raised to the level of like or near deity, though you have to die first or be transfigured by the power of God. But then what do we do to get to level four?
Truth is Power. Reason is Wisdom. Intelligence is Experience. Hope is Bright!
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Atreyu
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Re: The five levels of consciousness

Post by Atreyu »

The beginning of acquiring special powers (Level 4) is self-awareness. Man cannot get anything more out of his machine (his physical organism) until he first gets to know the machine. The machine cannot be fixed or augmented until one has a great awareness of all of its intricacies....
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Sy Borg
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Re: The five levels of consciousness

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Lark_Truth wrote:What I don't understand is this: if we are on level three, then how are we supposed to get to level four? From a religious standpoint, I can understand that it is possible for someone to be raised to the level of like or near deity, though you have to die first or be transfigured by the power of God. But then what do we do to get to level four?
That will happen over time, if not with humans (since nothing is guaranteed), at least some intelligent life somewhere amongst the trillion galaxies out there will make the technologically enhanced evolutionary leap. Ditto the step from #4 to #5.
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Re: The five levels of consciousness

Post by Rr6 »

Greta wrote:I don't understand your symbolic language.The connections between these things and consciousness may be foundational in terms of the systems that support conscious awareness, but the connections between these things and consciousness as regards the topic seem oblique.
For instance, take gravity and dark energy. What have they to do with consciousness?
Less than your "atoms" and "molecules" at local levels but at macro-cosmic level very much.

All is connected by gravity and dark energy.

Take those away and Universe and Earth does not exist ergo human consciousness does not exist.

Human consciousness looks for truth wherever it is to be found.

r6
"U"niverse > UniVerse > universe > I-verse < you-verse < we-verse < them-verse
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