Tegmark: Consciousness is a state of matter

And how does this explain anything at all?

If you have something to say, say it yourself. Please stop just posting peoples' quotes or links to their quotes as your sole contribution. What you are doing is tantamount to preaching, which is against forum rules.

 

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Of course. It explains everything.

 

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That much is clear. And I have no interest in quibbling over word definitions.

 

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We know, by direct observation, that consciousness is a pattern of action. An inactive brain features no consciousness. Freeze a brain and dissect it to find the consciousness and you will get nowhere. It's not a state of matter in any ordinary sense, the sense of fixed over time and static, any more than rain is a state of water or an asteroid is a state of rock. It's a pattern of behavior, that takes place over time or not at all.

Now there are sophisticated ways of viewing "state of matter" in which all such states are described as patterns of behavior, and no doubt that is the source of the language used by the OP physicist. But it seems to mislead, here.