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Comment by hardbass | Hacker News Reader

Any theory about any phenomenon in the world has "things" to do with these. These are universal physical and mathematical laws. If your theory violates this, you have to disprove physics first or admit your theory is wrong.

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Could you give an example of a consciousness-related theory that violates one of these? It sounds to me a bit like saying that if your chess move violates thermodynamics then it's an illegal move. I suppose it's true but I can't imagine one that does.

A chess move cannot violate thermodynamics. But if you make a theory that a chess game hypercomputes, then it violates existing knowledge of physics. And you haven't been able to demonstrate by experiment that the chess move hypercomputes. Physical laws are not like human or legal laws that can be violated. Either it cannot be violated, or it can be violated and the physical law is wrong, which requires experimental and mathematical evidence, not wishy washy verbal salads.

ANd yes, an example would be Penrose believes something in the brain is non-computable. However Penrose is a very excellent thinker as far as the standards for consciousness theories go, for he posited a physically testable theory as far as I know. Even if it turns out to be wrong, this is worthy of respect.

It's okay to violate physical laws, they only hold when they hold. Newtonian physics violates the laws of Aristotelian physics. Special theory of relativity violates the laws of Newtonian physics. Boltzmann brain violates the second law of thermodynamics. Dark energy violates the law of conservation of energy. Neutral kaon decay violates CP symmetry.

That means the older physical law was wrong or an approximation, that's what I meant. You 'violate' newtonian physics because its not completely correct.

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