Is it possible for a human to exist, without any ability to ask questions? Internally, externally or both. Even when I try to ‘not think,’ I must be internally checking that whichever ‘storage unit,’ let’s call it ‘short term memory,’ for want of anything better/more accurate that I use to hold a thought, is currently, ‘empty.’ Such internal checking would be based on the question ‘am I thinking?’
If I concentrate on the number 2 or the colour blue or a cabbage or a king then surely I have to have previously-stored answers to the questions what is 2, blue, cabbage, king etc. It seems to be that it's all about asking and answering questions, from the moment of birth.
Is the main function of a lifeform such as a human, therefore, to ask and answer questions? and if so, then what would be the final goal of this?
Is panpsychism /cosmopsychism therefore an emergent property of the Universe?
Panpsychism was supported by plato, Spinoza, Leibniz, Bertrand Russell etc
The philosopher, Phillip Goff discusses panpsychism here:
http://www.philipgoffphilosophy.com/uploads/1/4/4/4/14443634/routledge_panpsychism.pdf
And he discusses the subterm cosmopsychism here:
https://aeon.co/essays/cosmopsychism-explains-why-the-universe-is-fine-tuned-for-life
Dr Richard Gault (History and the philosophy of Science) discusses panpsychism here:
http://besharamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Panpsychism-Richard-Gault.pdf
I have not read every word in these links but I am not currently convinced by either panpsychism or cosmopsychism yet but I do find the following idea very interesting:
The digital era has resulted in an ‘information at our fingertips’ situation due to the internet and the general advances in communication technology. This has also created an explosion of fake news and a global ability to fool ‘more of the people more of the time.’ However, I am more interested in the consequential, ‘the world is a smaller place,’ idea. It is feasible that as technology advances and if we do become more transhuman, in the future that we will become more of a collective (not in the Star Trek Borg sense of centrally controlled automatons) in our ability to share thoughts and could this result (at some point in the future) in the creation of some form of world, and then eventually, a universal, intellect, where we would still be individuals but also be capable of ‘connecting and collectivising’ our brain power.
