Michael Abramson
11 a.m., January 17, 2021
Here is the speaker’s description of his talk:
“My area of expertise is system modeling and simulation. The folks like me are usually interested in systems’ behavior and not in their feelings. We can say sometimes that a particle “feels” the force, but only metaphorically.
Yet we know that at least some systems, such as humans and animals, really feel something, and for us this subjective experience seems very real. How to reconcile this reality with the reality of physical and chemical processes in our brains?
This seems so difficult to do that this is known as “The Hard Problem of Consciousness.” It looks like physics just doesn’t have a place for something like subjective experience. Or does it?
In this talk I’m going to discuss a radical idea that can make the hard problem of consciousness almost trivial, but may also have profound implications for how we see the world and ourselves, how we trust science and other people, and what kind of moral choices we have. You can decide how this worldview, which I’d call “subjective materialism,” can be consistent with humanism.”
———-
Because of the coronavirus situation, this Forum will be held online.
If you don’t intend to ask any questions or make any comments during this Forum, then please click the below link on Sunday around 11 a.m. in order to view the Forum as it occurs (in real time):
https://www.echoplexmedia.com/humanist
If you may want to ask a question or make a comment during this Forum, then please click the below link on Sunday around 11 a.m. in order to view, and possibly take part in, the Forum as it occurs (in real time):
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/314247393?pwd=d285R2VxWWdNcmk4NHdPaVNpWjc4dz09
(Note: this is a different link than has been posted here previously.)
If you don’t have the Zoom app installed on your desktop computer, then joining the meeting via the above link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer, and then take you to the meeting.
You can also install the Zoom app on your smart phone, and then enter:
314247393
as the meeting number, and
255787
as the passcode, to get to this Zoom meeting.
———-
The Hard Problem of Consciousness: Why Do We Feel What We Feel? – Michael Abramson from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.
RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
To help our Forum series continue, please consider making a donation or becoming a member (http://www.humanists.org/blog/membership/) of the Humanist Community.
Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.