The use of phrases like conscious power, conscious energy, conscious effort etc are very common. The fundamental physical forces are all unconscious we know. Can consciousness apply a fifth (or sixth, if fifth is reserved for anti-gravity) kind of force and do work? Do we ever exert conscious forces while doing work, like when we lift a paper-weight or press enter on the keyboard?
This is a tricky question for all, it seems.
While we know that all the four fundamental forces discovered so far have nothing to do with consciousness, and everything to do with interactions among unconscious quanta of matter-energy in an equally unconscious space-time background, somehow something seems to be missing. How are we able to implement our conscious willful actions like lifting a paperweight on the table or hitting the "enter" key on the keyboard?
How are we able to translate our willful thought into the corresponding action of lifting etc? Can we say that consciousness can guide or change the unconscious forces of nature especially, electromagnetism and gravity?
The change of state of systems brought about by conscious action needs to be incorporated and explained in a manner acceptable to Physicists (and scientists in general), if we are to explain consciousness in physical terms.
The answer to this question would be a good opening for further discussion on the issue of consciousness.
Without even the question of whether there is a consciousness ultimately controlling the synaptic firings of our minds: couldn't you still argue that the electrochemical movements in our nervous system, and other cells are emitting an electrical and material influence on their surroundings? It is the will of life to express itself that determines the patterns of the electrical and material patterns that ultimately form organisms. I feel the question really is if consciousness could exist as an oscillating manifestation that we could measure directly or through its influence on its surroundings. In which case, isn't the perpetuation of life in itself proof that it has an energetic force?
Thanks Arwen for your response.
If it is to be measurable in Lab, what do you think would be its dimensions? In what units will it come out? How will it be related to Energy, for example?
Hahahaa! If I knew the answer to that, I would never want for anything! ;) Besides, you're the physicist, but as it seems you are implying that consciousness can only come from something that is alive, I thought as a biologist I could pipe in.
If you wanted to measure consciousness, however, you would first have to decide where you think its coming from right? Does it start with the spontaneous formation of specific nucleotides when the right elements are mixed with water and sunlight and therefore exist in all life? Or perhaps it is special to humans due to our specialized brain structures and is therefore just a function of that? It would, of course, be easier to decide if we could just measure it...
But how could you separate the force of a conscious will from the inevitability created by the inertia of factors leading to its actions? Who is to say that you have any control over the action of lifting a paperweight, and that it is not just a fractal unfurling? And yet, you would never lift the paperweight without first the thought to do so. And where does that thought come from that is capable of waging war on entropy? If a measurable consciousness could be found, and was relatable to an energetic force, then its fundamentality would most likely negate any idea of individual desire or control, and would most likely change our idea of what separates life from matter.
It does seem as though conscious thoughts have an impact on the world around us in a manner relatable to physical motions or energetics, so the answer may lie simply in focusing on what our thoughts can manipulate and trying to figure out how it was done...
Wonderful answer Arwen!
It shows how much we have got to unearth regarding this peculiar thing called consciousness, which seems to be a special characteristic of the living.
Matter and mind seem to be so much intertwined that it is difficult to separate them and study them one after the other. What happens in deep sleep? Consciousness separates out from the material tabernacle that we think is its support--right? Or what do you think is happening in that state? An analysis of dream and deep sleep is as much important as is the analysis of waking experience hat we normally regard as conscious experience. The entire universe is perceived as such only in the waking state which is roughly, two-thirds or three-fourths of the total time in a day, for a healthy individual.
Lot more needs to be known and discovered.
Thank you very much.
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