Are Doorknobs Conscious?

[Radical]

An interesting quote I found from a website discussing The Meaning of Life.

"While our consciousness seems to depend on the matter in our brains, we cannot detect anything unusual about our brains that would indicate why consciousness is attached to it. If we agree that consciousness is in the brain as a whole, is it in a single neuron? A single atom? A single electron? Assuming that nothing exists except for interacting particles, somehow within every particle there is something that provides the basis for consciousness.

Complex conscious activity may require highly complex structures such as our brains to occur, but the basis of consciousness must be present in matter itself. Our minds are simply one manifestation of a universal phenomenon. People are examples of one way to organize the consciousness in matter. Are there other ways? How can we know which types of organizations of matter yield high-level consciousness like ours, and which do not? Are there structures which support levels of consciousness higher than ours? Are doorknobs conscious?"

What are your thoughts?

[RandomJohn]

You ask hard questions, Radical. One philosophy that I'm exploring holds that every object has a consciousness. It's one of the harder things for me to accept about it, as I haven't directly experienced the consciousness of an inanimate object.

[Wabi-sabi]

I'm pretty sure most doorknobs know they are doorknobs. Some may not however. It depends on their individual level of consciousness, their spiritual progress and how many times they have been doorknobs in the past.

[Lotus]

A case of 1 + 1 = more than 2. (?)

Or are you more concerned with "The Ghost in the Machine," lovingly (ok, not lovingly) sprouted and developed from Descartes' concept of mild/body dualism. Sort of; it's come a long way.

Coming to a bookstore near you (March, 2007): I am a Strange Loop by Douglas R. Hofstadter. He's the mind behind the classic, Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.

[Paul C]

Originally Posted by Radical

An interesting quote I found from a website discussing The Meaning of Life.

"While our consciousness seems to depend on the matter in our brains, we cannot detect anything unusual about our brains that would indicate why consciousness is attached to it. If we agree that consciousness is in the brain as a whole, is it in a single neuron? A single atom? A single electron? Assuming that nothing exists except for interacting particles, somehow within every particle there is something that provides the basis for consciousness.

Complex conscious activity may require highly complex structures such as our brains to occur, but the basis of consciousness must be present in matter itself. Our minds are simply one manifestation of a universal phenomenon. People are examples of one way to organize the consciousness in matter. Are there other ways? How can we know which types of organizations of matter yield high-level consciousness like ours, and which do not? Are there structures which support levels of consciousness higher than ours? Are doorknobs conscious?"

What are your thoughts?

It seems to work off the assumption that there is more than one conciousness present within reality. But I understand what is trying to be expressed.

Reminds me much of how some telekinesis techniques are explained. Such as, asking the object you're trying to move mentally, persuading it to cooperate. But of course, you may be just asking yourself (Conciousness or Sub-conciousness, Source, reality) to allow the object to move, because it's already within your complete control and you just don't realize it yet.

Also, to support the idea of all objects having their own individual conciousness would be how some people can read the 'memory' or history of an object they hold or barely reach out and touch. (Naturally or learnt)

[Zach]

Is my computer conscious? Do each of the parts on the motherboard have their own consciousnesses, or do they all work together as one consciousness? What happens if I install a new video or sound card, does it have its own consciousness (and each of the parts on the circuit board) or does its consciousness(es) merge with the rest of the computer's? What about my LCD monitor, and the millions of tiny pixels it has? Do they each have consciousnesses too?

[RandomJohn]

Your body completely replaces every skin cell you have every seven years on average. Do you have a consciousness? What if every heart cell were completely replaced every few years? Red blood cells have no nucleus, and are replaced continuously.

[Andrew Brunelle]

If doorknobs were conscious and were trying to expand their consciousness, you think maybe they wouldn't want to be dooprknobs anymore? Sure a doorknob is a great job to have, but I would think some of them might want to move up to doorbell.

[elainevdw]

All I know is that sometimes, I sure feel like a doorknob!

...I'm sorry, I've been dying to say that every time I see this thread updated, and I had to get it out of my system!

[Mark Lapierre]

Elaine:
Marry me!

On a more serious note (maybe a B flat?), I think it's pointless trying to determine what structures other than humans may be conscious unless you first define consciousness itself.

Since the only experience of consciousness I have is the human experience, then I don't see how anything without a brain structured similarly to a human's could be conscious.

However if consciousness is defined as the sole consciousness in which all of reality resides (as suggested by those who believe in a subjective reality), then yes, everything is consciousness and therefore conscious. But not in the same way that we think of consciousness from the objective reality viewpoint.

-----
I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it.
--Jack Handey

[elainevdw]

Originally Posted by Mark Lapierre

Elaine: Marry me!

Ha!! Well, okay, as long as you're okay with the Vegemite ban. The FDA's full of doorknobs, too.

[maryelyn]

Originally Posted by Wabi-sabi

I'm pretty sure most doorknobs know they are doorknobs. Some may not however. It depends on their individual level of consciousness, their spiritual progress and how many times they have been doorknobs in the past.

some doorknobs are totally in denial....

[AndyMartin]

The question isn't whether the doorknob is conscious, but whether you are truly conscious of the doorknob.

There is no spoon.

[Erin Pavlina]

Andy, lol, I was just going to type something similar.

"There is no spoon." Exactly!

[DanielBrenton]

I am inclined to think that the universe is an expression of duality, and if we could see beyond that duality we wouldn't just see the unity, but we would be it. The doorknob is just another expression of the duality. Duality is separation, limitation, making the univeral discrete.

I've got a story about that, and rather than point you at where it's posted, I'll post it here --

Several years ago I was playing with my older stepson, when he was about seven. We had a deck of cards, and he spread them across our coffee table and asked me to find the aces.

Having gotten a little bit of a drift of how his mind worked in the two years I had known him, I asked him if he had taken the aces out before he spread out the cards. He had. So he shuffled the aces in and spread the cards back out on the table.

Looking at the cards I had a flash: if I am one with everything, I know where everything is.

I put my hand out over the pile and it was as if I could actually feel when my hand went over an ace. Slowly, I picked up a card and flipped it over.

It was an ace.

I “felt” the cards again, and it seemed like I’d found another one. I picked it up.

A second ace.

The thought went through my mind: I could make money doing this.

I picked up an eight.

*Sigh.*

For a short time I was “in the flow,” I knew things I shouldn’t be able to know. I don’t know if it was the impulse of personal gain that shut it off, or if what really stood behind the impulse was a sense of personal lack, but the door shut and I was a plain old human being again.

From this and other experiences I’ve had, I know that everything and everyone is connected. Some of us have had flashes of it, some of us live in constant awareness of it.

And some of us have never experienced anything like this, which I find very sad.

Now, I can't say I've had anywhere near as many wild cosmic experiences as our dear Erin has, but I will say I've experienced enough to tell me there is Something More.