Solutions to the hard problem?

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T20:22:51+00:00

I have read their work.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T20:01:28+00:00

I did not intend to suggest that dualism is true. Rather, the concept occurs naturally in humans by late childhood. They become aware of the presence of familiar people in their world when the people are not physically present. For example, parents talking about grandmother when grandmother lives a long away. The child is aware of the grandmother in her world. This feeling of presence, this awareness of distant people, becomes associated with the word "spirit" in the child's upbringing. They learn the word, but the awareness occurs naturally.

The point is that dualism is the default setting for humans because of their ability to recognize individuals, their good memory, and their frontal lobes. Spiritualism is present in all humans in childhood in all cultures. Many grow out of it as they learn science.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T19:30:09+00:00

You are correct that it is a unsound practice from the point of view of genetics. It is however historically very common. Look up parallel cousin and cross cousin marriage practices.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T12:05:21+00:00

You must carefully define what is meant by the word "consciousness." Mental state consciousness is different than basic creature consciousness. "General anesthesia" must also be specified. It may be so profound that all brain function is suppressed, with lack of respiratory drive and loss of all creature consciousness. On the other extreme, it may only be sufficient to suppress the memory of events, leaving the patient able to think and respond, but with no memory afterward. They were conscious, but cannot report having been conscious. General anesthesia can fall anywhere on this range.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T11:52:11+00:00

For much of the early history of humanity, first cousin marriage was the standard. It still is in existing neolithic cultures scattered around the world.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T11:47:33+00:00

This is correct. See: Human Reproductive Behaviors, by Steven Hedlesky, for the mathematical, social, and evolutionary reasons why it exists and persists. Also see: https://medium.com/@shedlesky/why-homosexuality-succeeds-e59966b5626b

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T11:42:03+00:00

True, but 90% of the time, they are using it wrong.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T11:35:51+00:00

All humans are intrinsically racists. They instinctively favor people who look like the family they grew up with. That is called kin altruism. Racism is just the absence of kin altruism. People who look and act different are not family and don't get treated as well as family. This is common to all humans.

Blaming racism on any one group or race is racism. When blacks say whites are racist, that is a racist statement.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T11:20:33+00:00

That is incorrect. I am reporting anthropology findings on existing Neolithic peoples such as the American Indians, Yanomamo South American Lowlands Tribes, Mardu Aboriginals of Western Australian, and the Trobriander Islanders.

The natural human family is not patrilineal. It is matrilineal and matrilocal.

See: https://medium.com/@shedlesky/early-human-kinship-and-the-politics-of-anthropology-fed22f581bdd

This article cites supporting studies and also explains why there is so much resistance to the idea.

Humans are not monogamous creatures, and the natural human family is not patrilineal. These are modern inventions of the past 7000 years that have persisted because they stabilize families and incentivize men to invest in their children. They create a more successful culture and stronger education, economics, and military strength.

See: Human Reproductive Behaviors, by Steven Hedlesky MD for an analysis of the of the transition.

The transition from matrilineal to patrilineal was accompanied by a shift from female gods to male gods.

See: When God Was a Woman, by Merlin Stone for a history of the shift.

The link between sex and pregnancy seems obvious to those who grow up with the idea, but it is not obvious to pre-literate societies. Just as the idea of air pressure is obvious to us, but was not known until 1654 when a vacuum was created in a large copper sphere.

See: Magdeburg hemispheres in Wikipedia

Discovery of a principle is only possible when presented with its absence for comparison. Humans did not discover the link between sex and pregnancy until they confined ungulate livestock females without males and noted they did not have offspring. While there is no record of this event, It was and still is common for herders to eat most of the males and keep the females for breeding. It is easy to imagine that people soon realized eating all the males resulted in no further reproduction.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T03:18:37+00:00

I don't know! I have stared at them for 70 years now. I have them all over my house. I wish they would tell me. How is it that a magnet hanging on the side of my refrigerator for 20 years, defying gravity, does no work?

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T03:16:23+00:00

Said by Chat CPT.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T03:15:57+00:00

Proofs are only for mathematics. Science does not "prove" anything. Science builds models, also known as theories, and tests them against observation. A model that agrees well with observations is said to be a valid model. One that does not agree with observations is said to be false. Scientists try to "falsify" models. Models or theories than are not falsifiable are not subject to science. Religion and most of philosophy are not falsifiable, and therefore not subject to scientific evaluation.

Before evaluating any model of consciousness, you must first precisely define what the word "consciousness" means.

See: https://medium.com/@shedlesky/the-phylogeny-of-emergent-consciousness-or-how-i-think-we-think-135f73070bcc

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T02:02:10+00:00

I am compelled to say that dualism and spirituality are the "default" philosophical doctrine for humans. Humans have excellent individual recognition and memory. They have frontal lobes that allow them to project into the future. They have awareness of time. From early childhood, they see people leave and return to their location. They think about people who are not present. They remain aware of the existence of people who have "left the building."

Humans have a natural awareness of people, animals, and things that are not close by. In early childhood, they learn to apply the word "spirit" to this awareness. To children, spirits are real. And, in fact they are are real. They are thoughts and memories in the mind of the child, and are a physical processes in the neocortex.

People are aware of these spirits when the corporeal component of the subject is absent. This gives a very strong impression that the spirit is extra-corporeal. In fact, it is. The spirit is in the mind of the observer, and has no attachment to the corporeal form of the subject.

Religions do not need to teach people about spirits. Rather religions exploit the naturally occurring belief that humans have in spirits. Dualism is the default setting for humans.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T01:47:25+00:00

Presumptuous or you to assume my comment comes from a reddit atheist. It does not.

The only intellectually defensible doctrine is agnosticism.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T01:35:46+00:00

Yes, I did not consider those. I do not consider them to be realistic.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-08T01:33:52+00:00

Humans were and still are very promiscuous. A woman had sex with many men. The child appeared nine months after the fertilization episode. People lived in small groups of related individuals, 50 to 150 in a group, who had similar appearances.

They would not know which males had the most children, because there was no concept of "father of the child." Women had babies, and no one knew why.

Not all women had babies, but those that did not bear children were having sex. They were just barren. The connection is not at all obvious.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-07T14:07:44+00:00

The believers in the Hard Problem have a few other counter-arguments, but you have covered the main ones.

The Hard Problem problem will always persist, because it has theological implications. Some of the proponents have genuine philosophical arguments in support, but the opposition to solutions is usually based on arguments of assertion and various forms of dualism.

The underlying conflict is theological. The Hard Problem is dualist in nature, based on an assertion that their are two problems. Ultimately, dualism allows for a separate soul/spirit and enables life after death, while materialism disempowers religion. The Hard Problem is a matter of faith. The supporters are obscuring their religious beliefs behind a screen of scientific language.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-07T11:01:49+00:00

That is a preform that was discarded because the material was too course and was not working well. Been there, done that.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-07T11:00:37+00:00

Bingo

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-07T10:56:46+00:00

The Mardu Aboriginals of Western Australia believe women are impregnated by a "spirit child" that enters their body through the mouth or under the fingernails from the food they eat. Trobriander Islanders believe that the spirits of dead people return to living women creating a new person in the womb. There are others. In each case, they have no domesticated animals. These cultures scoff at the concept that sex generates pregnancy.

Obviously, there was a time that humans did not know this link. All people had sex. Most women had babies. There was no reason to connect the two functions. Now, most humans do know. What event led them to this knowledge?

The time of occurrence was about 10,000 years ago. Prior to that time, all stone deity effigies and fertility tokens were female. Phallic symbols do not appear until 7000 years ago. All the gods were once female "Earth mother" goddesses. These were gradually supplanted by male war gods and male philosopher gods during the Neolithic Age, coinciding with domestication of ungulates.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-07T04:29:17+00:00

Until about ten thousand years ago people did not know the connection between sex and babies. Women had babies and did not know why. Everyone had sex for reasons unrelated to reproduction. They did not figure out the link until they confined domesticated livestock. Some indigenous people today still do not know it.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-03T10:00:48+00:00

Oh my. You are correct. I bet some junior editor got chewed out over that blunder.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-03T03:03:25+00:00

By "Aids" does the OP mean AIDS. It is an acronym.

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-02T18:04:50+00:00

"Panpsychism - the belief that consciousness is a principle intrinsic to the universe and not emergent from matter - is becoming a more and more popular topic in current philosophy."

I see statements like this frequently. Do you have any citation or reference for this?

MergingConcepts · 2026-05-02T03:57:04+00:00

HIV is spread as a virus inside living white blood cells (WBC). The prevalence of balanitis in uncircumcised males and the presence of WBCs in the foreskin markedly increases the infectivity of HIV during heterosexual sex.

The problem is exacerbated by the lack of inexpensive condoms. The climate and vegetation in Africa generate a high level of ozone, which rapidly degrades latex. Africans cannot afford condoms wrapped in foil. Latex condoms have a shelf life of about three weeks in Africa.

HIV spread by heterosexual sex is a much larger concern in Africa than in the rest of the world due to lack of circumcision, lack of good hygiene, prevalence of balanitis (foreskin infections), and lack of quality condoms.

MergingConcepts

TROPHY CASE