Innovation (Introduction)

by dhw, Sunday, May 05, 2013, 18:08 (4019 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: It is indeed a fascinating article, and it makes me wonder why David is so opposed to panpsychist ideas, which are very similar. (Whitehead was a panexistentialist AND a panentheist!) Sheldrake's morphogenetic fields may not be quite the same as "intelligent energy", but clearly they are the source of information that passes not only between living organisms but also between particles of inanimate matter.-DAVID: Because I believe in a universal consciousness, which fits Sheldrakes' species consciousness studies-Your universal consciousness is a single entity which has been aware of itself for ever and ever and has created the universe and every form of life. Is this what Sheldrake believes? I can't see any contradiction between panpsychism and species consciousness. Please enlighten me.-dhw: Again he has hit the nail on the head. Innovation is the key issue. The "creative factor" is what David identifies as God, materialists as chance, and my particular panpsychist hypothesis as "intelligent energy".-DAVID: If only you would define intelligent energy and give it some coherent structure. Tell me how intelligent energy creates anything. My universal consciousness implies structure.-If we discount materialism for the sake of this particular argument, human intelligent energy is the conscious force that creates ideas, designs, art etc. and enables us to manipulate materials, including our own (e.g. if I want to move, my intelligent energy sends the relevant message to the rest of my body). In exactly the same way, intelligent energy is the force within materials that enables organisms to innovate. Your God is first-cause energy which has been intelligent for ever and ever, so define him and it! The concept I'm proposing also implies structure, but instead of this being imposed from outside by a single inventor, it is created from within: cells / termites / humans use their intelligent energy to cooperate with one another and create new structures.