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Comment by miika | Hacker News Reader

It would be mistake to assume that something which appears to be a single cell is a separate from its environment. Space connects all things and if Space happens to be awareness / consciousness then intelligence would be everywhere affecting all things.

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> [...] if Space happens to be awareness / consciousness then intelligence would be everywhere affecting all things.

The name for this kind of random connection of disparate things, implying meaning, without providing any, should be "'if' abuse".

This is meaningless word salad. This predicts nothing, proves nothing, demonstrates nothing, observes nothing. It's just wishy washy words put together in a row.

When we found out how "Space and time are connected", that actually meant we found mathematically how that relation works. It's not just some vague thought to ponder about. You can use space and time being connected to solve real problems about the world, like "Where will this particle be in the future and why is it somewhere you wouldn't expect?"

You can use "Space and time are connected" to understand the world, like why Mercury exists how it does. In fact, space and time being connected is necessary to solve that quandary.

The point of science is to advance our ability to predict the future from the current, not write high school poetry.

What would "Space is awareness" mean?

I was guessing it wouldn’t be well received haha. However there is plausible theory in which space is filled with microscopic wormholes, forming neural network like structures in which information would be exchanged across seemingly separate objects. This could be mechanism for self organizing systems etc. or even evolution as space itself would be the platform providing feedback loops that facilitate growth and intelligence of organic systems.

A single cell is quite literally defined by its membrane that… separates it from its environment.

And that is our definition. Read Kant

No. It is the cells definition and construction, one it spends considerable effort maintaining and the moment it stops maintaining it, it loses life. There’s really no two ways about it. You need a buffer from the environment to be alive. Otherwise thermodynamics will take its course right away.

Really? Cells put forward their own definition? So you think they are conscious, thinking beings?

There are certainly theories to that effect. But whether you stretch it to consciousness or not, each cell actively defines its boundary, and this boundary can change over time, to accommodate experience, and to promote anticipation.

Cells are autopoetic. They write their own experience.

You are reinventing pantheism.

The line between quackery and atomic science is so thin it is a bit cuckoo.

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