How Galileo Hid Our Conscious UNIVERSE | Two AIs Discuss Podcast

"Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness" by Philip Goff Book Link: https://amzn.to/3Jg3E8I

Galileo's Error by Philip Goff presents a revolutionary science of consciousness. The book argues that modern neuroscience and physical science are unable to explain subjective qualities (feelings colors smells) due to a 400-year-old philosophical error initiated by Galileo Galilei. Galileo designed science to focus only on quantifiable properties (motion shape size) and banished qualities to the non-physical soul. This division forms the foundation of the Hard Problem of consciousness.
This historical error renders materialism—the theory that consciousness is identical to brain states—logically flawed. Thinkers like Anil Seth and the Churchlands support materialism, yet it fails key philosophical tests. The knowledge argument using Black and White Mary demonstrates that physical knowledge is incomplete because she learns the subjective quality of yellow only upon direct experience. Furthermore, the philosophical zombie argument proves that the logical possibility of a P-Zombie (physically identical yet non-conscious) directly contradicts the materialist claim of identity. Meanwhile, dualism (immaterial mind) is scientifically untenable because the mind's interaction with the brain would necessitate anomalous events (little miracles) which neuroscience has failed to find.
The solution is panpsychism, representing a post-Galilean manifesto and a new Theory of Everything. This approach draws on the insights of Bertrand Russell and Arthur Eddington. They revealed that physics describes only the behavior of matter (what it does), remaining silent on its essential intrinsic nature. Panpsychism postulates that this missing intrinsic nature of matter is, in fact, consciousness. Fundamental particles like electrons and quarks possess incredibly simple forms of consciousness. This framework unifies mind and matter seamlessly.
The main theoretical challenge is the combination problem—how simple particle-minds form a complex human mind. This problem is manageable because quantum mechanics, specifically quantum entanglement, proves micro-reductionism is false and shows systems can be more than the sum of their parts. Researchers like Luke Roelofs and Hedda Hassel Mørch utilize the Integrated Information Theory (IIT) to model how highly integrated information in the brain creates unified consciousness.
The implications of this conscious cosmos are profound. If the conscious earth is filled with sentient plants, evidenced by phenomena like the Wood-Wide Web and conditioned learning, human action carries immediate moral significance. Finally, panpsychism offers a path to preserve genuine free will by suggesting that matter acts through responsiveness to inclinations rather than mechanistic compulsion. The ultimate goal is a truly complete scientific worldview that accepts subjective qualities as basic objective data.

Understanding how brains produce consciousness is one of the great scientific challenges of our age. Some philosophers argue that consciousness is something "extra," beyond the physical workings of the brain. Others think that if we persist in our standard scientific methods, our questions about consciousness will eventually be answered. And some even suggest that the mystery is so deep, it will never be solved. Decades have been spent trying to explain consciousness from within our current scientific paradigm, but little progress has been made.

Now, Philip Goff offers an exciting alternative that could pave the way forward. Rooted in an analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of modern science and based on the early twentieth-century work of Arthur Eddington and Bertrand Russell, Goff makes the case for panpsychism, a theory which posits that consciousness is not confined to biological entities but is a fundamental feature of all physical matter—from subatomic particles to the human brain. In Galileo's Error, he has provided the first step on a new path to the final theory of human consciousness.

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