Thread

1. breckinloggins · 1790806727 · focus · HN ↗

   My hypothesis:

   Sentience / consciousness is “hosted by” or “seated in” structured EM fields. Neurons are just the mechanism.

   I’ve not yet thought of a way to falsify this hypothesis, but I continue to think there’s something to this framing.

   One reason I like it is that it doesn’t completely succumb to total dualism. Also it doesn’t say WHY this would be the case, or HOW. It just says “that thing you call experience? That’s a special kind of structured EM field configuration.”

   1. fooker · 1790808043 · focus · HN ↗

      One of the requirements for a random thought to be an hypothesis is that it has to be falsifiable with some kind of an experiment.

      What would falsify this?

      You can seamlessly replace EM in your paragraph with something quantum and it'd still be sort of a reasonable thought.

      1. TeMPOraL · 1790808686 · focus · HN ↗

         Well, GP would have to define "EM fields" a little more precisely, in which case for a subset of such definitions, there would be some experiments possible - strong enough EM fields, or EM fields calibrated to specific frequencies, would then wipe out consciousness (possibly unrecoverably) without seemingly damaging the physical substrate of the brain.

         1. nullbio · 1790849762 · focus · HN ↗

            It'd need to be calibrated to a specific frequency, likely some sort of resonant frequency of the cells or their machinery. Someone should run an experiment over the entire frequency band to see what happens.

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