A quantum experiment by Feynman:

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
You're right. The nature of conciousness, awareness, intelligence, etc is a weak part of our science at this time. I suspect there are general principles that would allow for such things without nervous tissue but that's just speculation. In fact 100% of the time we've only observed such things coming from beings with nervous tissue and the amount ...[text shortened]... source of intelligence. The moon doesn't have any kind of analogous structures. Does it?

No, probably not, the moon is not aware of the Earth, with all standard definitions.

But, anyway, for the sake of discussion, we don't know much about intelligence. Other than our own intelligence, we know far lesser. And if we would encounter any alien intelligence, we would know even less. Well, the science fiction writers know a lot, but only in their own imagination.

So, if the Moon has intelligence, how would we know? Some says that the Universe in its entirety possess intelligence, but then we have to go back to the original question: What is intelligence? (No, this is not religion!)

Am I intelligent? Or am I only a biproduct in a mega maximus simulation in a mega maxissimus computer? How can I ever know?

Originally posted by sonhouse
In our brains, thought is generated by the movement of ions down the wires of neurons, in a conscious universe, what would be the analog of thoughts there?

There is absolutely no proof to your statement at all. There is not one single neurolgist or physicist that has ever been able to explain how concsiousness arises from a little lump of jelly. All you are talking about is a physical correlation of concsiouness not the cause of the concsiouness.

Originally posted by Penguin
[b]I dissagree here. I believe that consciousness is a result of the processing that our brains do.

Where do you think consciousness comes from?

Conscious is the basis of all phenomena - it is the underlying fundamental nature of the universe. It does not come from anywhere. If you can prove concsiousness comes from the brain you can win a Nobel prize. (I accept that if I could prove my position I would win a Nobel prize too).