this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2025
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The foundational idea behind what the user is talking about is called panpsychism, it's the idea that consciousness or awareness is actually a fundamental quality of the universe like fields or forces, in that it's in everything, but only complex systems have actual thoughts.
The theory(?) states that even a single electron or proton has a state of awareness, but without any functional way to remember any information or think it's just like some kind of flash of experience like if you suddenly developed perpetual amnesia about literally everything... while you were hurtling through the universe at high speed. You would still have a conscious experience, it would just be radically limited in what that "means."
I get the concept, but I don't get the usefulness of it. It feels too close to people wishing The Force was real.
Guys. You are not getting your light sabers this way.
I'm not advocating for consciousness as a fundamental quality of the universe. I think that lacks explanatory power and isn't really in the realm of science. I'm kind of coming at it the opposite way and pushing for a more concrete and empirical definition of consciousness.
Sounds like anthropomorphism to me.