Discovery Methods for Living Systems
What new methods would help explore consciousness of other beings?
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It seems to me that we humans are limited in our current tools, i.e. scientific method, to see the bigger picture and how various parts of the Earth are alive. In spirituality, a river, a mountain would be seen as alive, while if we look at scientific method, a river is not seen as alive.
I wonder, what new methods humans need to invent to explore consciousness of other beings, who are now by the scientific method are recognised as non-living systems?
Can we imagine a unification of a science and spirituality one day? And how would that look like?
"A book about mathematics, physics and spirituality. Spiritual instincts have evolved to connect us with the creative aspects of biological evolution which are crucial to long term survival."
// What new methods would help explore consciousness of other beings?
Mathematics, as the study of all possible structures, can help.
// "a river is not seen as alive"
The consciousness is not a binary -- it's a continuum -- so, even a river can be seen as having consciousness, even the atoms and molecules, and so on -- the entire world is a physical field, that is connected, intricate and particular. I like how Paul Budnik describes it in his video poem:
"I assume, that consciousness in some form is the essence of physical structure. Of course, only physical entities that have the capacities of sensation, memory and communication can describe their conscious experience, but other animate or even inanimate matter may still have some form of immediate experience, albeit much simpler than what we experience:
when does the fading consciousness of someone dying of alzheimer's end completely?
when does the consciousness begin in the developing human embry or fetus?
The simplest assumption is that it never begins or ends, but is only transformed as the structure of the brain and nervous system is transformed."
And so, he concludes, that:
"If consciousness is the essence of physical structure, then mathematics, which is the study of all possible structures, may be a source of insight into what we are facing and how we might deal with it [...]" (see the book in the link)