We are told that consciousness emerges from brain activity. It is a widely accepted theory that consciousness arises from the activity of neural networks and that create, due to their electrical and chemical signals, complex patterns giving rise to a conscious experience. It is believed that some specific brain regions play a key role in the emergence of consciousness, such as the prefrontal cortex, the parietal cortex, and the thalamus somehow integrate the information from different sensory inputs, creating a unified and coherent experience of the world.
Your term "no-progress" approaches (is that the right wording? I don't recall exactly) is perfect for this. People keep saying "We may not know now but some day we'll understand."
Chalmers calls this "promissory materialism."
It's like, you can hammer a nail for 10 million years; your hammering is NEVER going to turn the nail into a butterfly!
"Oh, but you don't understand the complexity of endless hammering. How can you deny that at some point in thousands or several million years, the nail may begin to sprout wings, and eventually fly off?"
Well, it might "fly off the handle" but that nail is just not going to be a butterfly.
Interesting that the people who say "some day we'll know" don't realize their prophecy is as silly as believing hammering a nail will one day turn it into a butterfly.
Chalmers, by the way, subsequently said that there really is no hard problem of CONSCIOUSNESS - there's a hard problem of MATTER - something which (as defined by materialists) we can never, by definition, have ANY contact with nor ANY evidence of!
Start there, and ask your materialists, "Why should I believe in such a thing? I have no need for that hypothesis!"
Your term "no-progress" approaches (is that the right wording? I don't recall exactly) is perfect for this. People keep saying "We may not know now but some day we'll understand."
Chalmers calls this "promissory materialism."
It's like, you can hammer a nail for 10 million years; your hammering is NEVER going to turn the nail into a butterfly!
"Oh, but you don't understand the complexity of endless hammering. How can you deny that at some point in thousands or several million years, the nail may begin to sprout wings, and eventually fly off?"
Well, it might "fly off the handle" but that nail is just not going to be a butterfly.
Interesting that the people who say "some day we'll know" don't realize their prophecy is as silly as believing hammering a nail will one day turn it into a butterfly.
Chalmers, by the way, subsequently said that there really is no hard problem of CONSCIOUSNESS - there's a hard problem of MATTER - something which (as defined by materialists) we can never, by definition, have ANY contact with nor ANY evidence of!
Start there, and ask your materialists, "Why should I believe in such a thing? I have no need for that hypothesis!"
Take THAT, Laplace!!!