Chapter 181: The Consciousness Attribute of All Things

"Panpsychism."

Upon hearing the mention of "panpsychism," Professor Zhuang's eyes instantly lit up. Jiang Zhe had finally brought up the specialized knowledge that he had studied and remembered so vividly.

Jiang Zhe continued to speak eloquently.

"Panpsychism is one of the oldest philosophical theories. It can be traced back to ancient Greece, to thinkers like Thales and Plato, who proposed that all things possess a soul or consciousness."

"Within the philosophical school of panpsychism, supporters believe that consciousness is, in fact, a fundamental attribute of the universe."

"This consciousness is not something that evolved; it is not to say that it developed over time into the intelligent consciousness found in humans. Rather, it is stating directly: all things possess [consciousness], just like time and space."

"Philosopher David Chalmers proposed that every physical entity has a tiny bit of consciousness, and even a single particle might possess 'primitive consciousness.'"

"What is primitive consciousness?"

"Just as you might guess in your hearts—even a blade of grass, a small stone, or even a speck of dust; and scaling up to a planet, like our Earth which possesses a self-regulating consciousness. When it encounters destruction, its [consciousness attributes] activate, performing self-repair and expelling disasters from its body. In reality, these are all manifestations of consciousness attributes in effect."

Hearing this, Professor Zhuang listened to Jiang Zhe's explanation, unable to help but nod, though he then shook his head.

"Panpsychism does indeed say that; but that was in ancient times, when scientific and philosophical concepts were not very developed. The evidentiary value is not very high."

"Just like Zeno's tortoise and the so-called [infinite divisibility] theorem, which was long ago ended by [planck time]."

"And stones should not possess primitive consciousness attributes; they are visible everywhere in the universe. Only those things that are not ubiquitously visible, like vegetation, seaweed, and even animals, possess primitive consciousness attributes."

"As for white blood cells, hematopoietic cells, and germs, these also have consciousness attributes."

"Overall, panpsychism is a bit overly arbitrary about the universe in the absence of sufficient cognition, though if you pick through it a little, you can still prove it to be correct."

At this moment, Jiang Zhe's voice continued.

"Perhaps at first glance, it sounds quite mysterious and quite ridiculous."

"But, in reality!"

Jiang Zhe grinned, raised a finger, and emphasized a few points:

"It is highly likely to be true. It's just that the [consciousness] they possess is not quite the same as the consciousness you and I understand—the ability to think, to generate self-awareness, and to distinguish right from wrong."

"Or one could say that human consciousness is mixed with [binary opposition], just as you, I, and everyone else must distinguish between [black and white], [good and evil], [right and wrong], and [beauty and ugliness]."

"But in the [consciousness of all things] I just mentioned, they do not distinguish between [black and white], [good and evil], [right and wrong], or [beauty and ugliness]."

"It only goes to show that while our human intelligent consciousness is advanced, it is also very low-level!"

"Just like the Earth—do you all think it lacks consciousness? If it lacked consciousness, why would it be capable of natural disasters like major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions?"

"Are these not precisely the manifestation of [consciousness attributes] in effect?"

After saying this, he stopped speaking, giving the audience time to react.

...

This series of analyses landed, instantly leaving the materialist experts and the audience bewildered and caught off guard.

Comments immediately began to flood the livestream chat.

"Every material has consciousness, and these consciousnesses exist naturally, not having evolved... Sorry, I really cannot agree. I truly find it hard to imagine that stones also possess consciousness attributes."

"Whether the Earth actually has consciousness, I'm not sure, but these words of his are very enlightening."

"How so?"

"The Earth, can you really say the Earth lacks consciousness attributes? If the Earth lacked consciousness attributes, it would not have a self-circulating mechanism. You must know that anything possessing a [mechanism] is not unconscious. What is the survival mechanism of us humans? Eating healthy food, drinking clean water, excreting, living in a safe and clean environment, and curing diseases; these are our current human survival mechanisms. If we were to destroy any one of these mechanisms, we humans would quickly perish."

"Exactly, exactly! If we destroy some kind of circulation mechanism on Earth, the Earth will also quickly die. In our Earth's history, we have gone through 5 mass extinctions; it can absolutely be said that a certain species became too powerful, or a certain biological environment was severely damaged, and in the end, the Earth struck back. For example, if we destroy every place on the globe now, including the vegetation under the seawater, then eventually, the Earth's herbivores will face rapid death. Then, the carnivores will die one after another. With this, the most important mechanism is destroyed, and over time, because there is no vegetation, the Earth will become a dead planet, with only the core still running."

"Hiss... Now that you put it that way; the Earth seems to be alive."

"..."

The brief discussion caused more viewers to think about the meaning in Jiang Zhe's words.

Humans do indeed, as Jiang Zhe said, possess a consciousness of binary opposition.

Concepts of opposition such as silence and screaming, black and white, good and evil, beauty and bad, safety and danger, as well as fullness and hunger.

When these binary oppositions disappear, it is equivalent to a person losing their vision, hearing, sensation, taste, and so on, becoming something that only possesses [consciousness].

At that time, people would only find that they could only briefly live within the darkness of the human brain, unable to shout, unable to speak, unable to feel, unable to sleep, and so on.

At the same time, the experts also imagined—when humans lose binary opposition, they would be like stones, without any binary opposition of movement or stillness, just standing quietly in some place, gazing into the [darkness] forever.

Gradually, all the experts and the audience fell into deep thought.

Because...

They suddenly realized that consciousness can indeed survive in this extreme situation without binary opposition.

The Earth's primary consciousness is very likely constantly [gazing at] the light it emits forever.

It possesses perception, capable of sensing humans living on the Earth's surface, and the signals from electronic devices created by humans can be captured by the core.

For the Earth, consciousness attributes are always in effect: the manifestation of self-circulation.

Sunlight shines on the earth, absorbing water, rising into the sky, falling as heavy rain, irrigating rice fields and vegetation. Vegetation is eaten by humans and animals, the creatures excrete, nourishing the vegetation and the land, replenishing trace elements. Then, small flying animals spread seeds, planting them, and more vegetation rises, providing the Earth with more oxygen and absorbing more carbon dioxide...

Perhaps a certain region suddenly becomes unstable, and then that place will experience earthquakes, volcanoes, or even tsunamis.

Thinking carefully, the geological movements that lead to earthquakes are indeed, as Jiang Zhe said: the effect of consciousness attributes—it is consciousness attributes that human cognition cannot understand in effect.

Inside the lecture hall.

All the experts stared at the big screen, speechless.

Everyone was thinking in their hearts: if one were to classify a complete set of mechanisms as [consciousness attributes].

In the end, it would indeed be as Jiang Zhe said: this is the only standard for advanced consciousness attributes.

Soon, a young astronomer spoke with difficulty:

"If we extrapolate based on the [panpsychism] that Jiang Zhe mentioned, we can deduce that Earth's nuclear fusion metal sphere is actually the source of Earth's self-consciousness."

"To break it down further, if we infer based on this concept for all stars and planets in the universe, as long as we give those planets enough time, according to [Integrated Information Theory], planets, stars, and even the entire universe have a high probability of becoming states with [consciousness] attributes over time."

"After that, as long as the planets and stars have not entered their death phase, then every long-existing star in our entire universe is an individual, higher-level life form—these are all states of life existence that we humans currently cannot understand and can only imagine."

"Just like how we astronomers have always used human carbon-based organisms as the standard to search for extraterrestrial life; but we have overlooked a possibility: silicon-based elemental life might actually survive better in the universe. They are resistant to high temperatures, high pressure, and extreme environments; they also do not need sunlight, and their lifespans are millions of years long."

"Perhaps the way we have been searching for extraterrestrial civilizations has been wrong all along."

As the words fell, another middle-aged astronomer in a suit stood up and spoke: "The method is not wrong; we are all using electromagnetic wireless signals to detect, regardless of what form the other party is. As long as there is a civilization, they must use communication equipment. Even if it's more outrageous, even if they are cultivators, the energy fluctuations used by cultivators could be detected by our 'Sky Eye.' But in reality, there is nothing. We simply haven't detected any signals in the universe at all!"

Once these words were spoken, the other experts who wanted to speak closed their mouths again.

It is indeed true; it is as if there is nothing in the universe.

Just then, Jiang Zhe's voice came from the big screen.

"Alright, whether the universe is alive or dead, everyone actually knows in their hearts."

"As long as the universe is not in a state of heat death, then it is alive."

"Regarding this issue, we will no longer dwell on it."

After saying this, he raised his hand to check the time; it was already 9:20 PM. It was time for the next step.

Then he looked up and continued:

"The classification of cosmic civilization levels is complete. We will now enter the next segment: the length of time that intelligent life can exist."