View source for What produces consciousness argument

Science tells us what produces human [[consciousness]] and that is the human brain. But it is more complicated than that because the brain can exist without producing consciousness. So there has to be something else that effects the production of consciousness by the brain than just the existence of a brain. What science has learned is that the brain has to function in correct ways to produce consciousness. There are however, an endless number of different consciousnesses that a brain can produce. How does the brain produce these enumerable number of different of consciousnesses? Is it the different matter that is used? Is it the different place and time that the brain exists in. What causes the differences in the consciousness produced by a brain are the differences in the way the brain is structured and then how internal and external conditions effects how it then functions.

We get information by analogy from experiments with chemicals, electronics, etc., where can we get the same results with the different chemicals and matter in other forms in different places and times. Two experiments can be in different places and times, made of different matter and give the same results. If they do not the experimenter looks for why there is a difference in the results. If two identical radios do not produce the same sounds at the same time, the scientist does not look for some supernatural reasons, they check first for all of the physical reasons that they are not producing the same sounds. Are they both plugged in or do they have the same energy levels (like from batteries). Are they identically tuned. Are they functioning identically. Are the environmental conditions the same, maybe one is shielded from the radio signals. If after everything is checked and there can be found no know cause for this behavior more and more experiments are carried out until there is found a physical cause. It may be a brand new physical phenomena that has never knowingly been observed before and when this is duplicated identical behavior (sound) is achieved. Usually it is a difference in the the structure and functioning. Many different physical things can cause a different in structure and functioning. Any varying physical factors that do not cause a large enough change in the functioning of the radio will produce the same behavior (sounds).

The brain is a physical object. What produces a specific consciousness is a specific structure and functioning of the brain. In the case of all experiments duplicating the structure and functioning closely enough in other experiments gives identical results. Radios with identical structure and functioning will produce identical sounds. TVs that have the same structure and functioning will produce the same TV shows. Computers that have identical structure and functioning will produce the identical results. These physical devices can not be made identical, thus they do not function identically either. But if the manufacturing process is good enough they will function identically enough to produce the required behavior. 

The structure and functioning of the brain produces consciousness. All evidence with other physical processes show that close enough identical structure and functioning produce close enough identical results. Consequently, if the structure and functioning of a brain is duplicated closely enough in a different brain then the consciousness that was or is produced in the first brain will be duplicated as well in the second brain.


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