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We Are Dead Stars

Migrated topic.
Thanks for the video Praxis. I find her view to be rather reductionist, and I do not like how she singles out humans as made from stars. While this is true, we must also recognize that at the same time, every single thing with which we interact is also made of stars. I think that she puts people on a pedestal a little bit with the video, but everything that surrounds us is comprised of compounds made of elements that were at some point compressed in a star. This kind of levels the playing field.

Also I'm not a fan of defining everything in terms of chemical reactions, physical processes, and evolution. I think that there is definitely something "more" to all of this than chemical reactions, just like there is more to your computer than it's simple hardware.

Is knowledge made from stars? How about thoughts in general? Energy? Think about the computer analogy here. You are sitting in front of a man-made machine assembled from plastic, metal, and glass. But the entire Internet does not exist solely within your machine! Nor does any near-field conduction technology or whatever other wireless signals it is sending and receiving. Just as the computer acts as a physical antenna for the nonphysical, I believe that our bodies act as physical antennas for the metaphysical or "conscious."

I cannot speak as to whether there was some kind of reasoning behind the stars forming larger elements than hydrogen. Maybe it is something that just "happened" or maybe there was some kind of evolutionary force guiding the way. But if it just "happened" then where and why does consciousness come into play? I think what we arrive at is one of the central questions in philosophy, "why are we here?" And I'm not sure that we can find a satisfactory answer to this question, but we might be able to figure out if we can even know such an answer.
 
Praxis. said:
A little simplistic though, maybe?
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No, way too complicated imo. We are 0s and 1s in a binary information system. The stars, supernovae and the atoms are just computational results of that information system. Call the 0 and 1 ying and yang and the information system DAO if you need different descriptions for that.

Haha, btw Mrs. NASA, I'm not a dead star, I'm a living supercluster.
 
RAM said:
Also I'm not a fan of defining everything in terms of chemical reactions, physical processes, and evolution. I think that there is definitely something "more" to all of this than chemical reactions, just like there is more to your computer than it's simple hardware.
Click to expand...

Yeeah, starting with Qualia & The Hard Problem of Consciousness.
 
RAM said:
Just as the computer acts as a physical antenna for the nonphysical, I believe that our bodies act as physical antennas for the metaphysical or "conscious."
Click to expand...

That is such a usefull and interesting concept, I just have yet to fully apprehend it with clarity in my mind enough to engage with it for understanding.
 
Sorry if I missed something crucial but what non-physical process are computers an antenna for ?

I am in love with the delicate dance of energy we call reality. Perhaps that's not all there is to it, but sometimes it seems people are just desperate for there to be more. Does there have to be? I'm not even saying there isn't, but... I dunno... it sometimes feels like we take this for granted.
 
RAM said:
Thanks for the video Praxis. I find her view to be rather reductionist, and I do not like how she singles out humans as made from stars. While this is true, we must also recognize that at the same time, every single thing with which we interact is also made of stars. I think that she puts people on a pedestal a little bit with the video, but everything that surrounds us is comprised of compounds made of elements that were at some point compressed in a star. This kind of levels the playing field.

Also I'm not a fan of defining everything in terms of chemical reactions, physical processes, and evolution. I think that there is definitely something "more" to all of this than chemical reactions, just like there is more to your computer than it's simple hardware.

Is knowledge made from stars? How about thoughts in general? Energy? Think about the computer analogy here. You are sitting in front of a man-made machine assembled from plastic, metal, and glass. But the entire Internet does not exist solely within your machine! Nor does any near-field conduction technology or whatever other wireless signals it is sending and receiving. Just as the computer acts as a physical antenna for the nonphysical, I believe that our bodies act as physical antennas for the metaphysical or "conscious."

I cannot speak as to whether there was some kind of reasoning behind the stars forming larger elements than hydrogen. Maybe it is something that just "happened" or maybe there was some kind of evolutionary force guiding the way. But if it just "happened" then where and why does consciousness come into play? I think what we arrive at is one of the central questions in philosophy, "why are we here?" And I'm not sure that we can find a satisfactory answer to this question, but we might be able to figure out if we can even know such an answer.
Click to expand...

Interesting thoughts. To be honest I hadn't looked that deep into it, but you've for sure got me thinking about some things now.

I am in love with the delicate dance of energy we call reality. Perhaps that's not all there is to it, but sometimes it seems people are just desperate for there to be more. Does there have to be? I'm not even saying there isn't, but... I dunno... it sometimes feels like we take this for granted.
Click to expand...

I think I've got to agree with Orion here though. I'm pretty content with reality as we understand it, and of course our understanding is constantly evolving. We are always finding out more and more...what is "beyond" right now will inevitably become a phenomena with a name, and then we'll have to conceive of a new "beyond" to satisfy our longing for some kind of poetic explanation to the cosmos.

The beauty is right here right now, and that includes the "more"...it's just science we haven't figured out yet. We shouldn't take what we know for granted just because we can't currently explain everything. As they say, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
 
Orion said:
Sorry if I missed something crucial but what non-physical process are computers an antenna for ?

I am in love with the delicate dance of energy we call reality. Perhaps that's not all there is to it, but sometimes it seems people are just desperate for there to be more. Does there have to be? I'm not even saying there isn't, but... I dunno... it sometimes feels like we take this for granted.
Click to expand...

I was getting at the Internet, which is really more of a concept than an actual tangible thing. So it doesn't exist on my machine. I need an internet connection to have access. I can see where you're coming from, as all data really needs to be stored on a server or in the air as an electronic signal at some point. But I am using the idea of wireless connection to kind of demonstrate my thoughts on consciousness.

I like to step back and appreciate nature all of the time and take value in truly being in the present moment with no other thoughts at all. I just find these deep philosophical thoughts exhilarating. :twisted:
 
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