Hi Gerald:

I imagine that to you and your readers it will sound like I’m nit-picking when I continually insist on a distinction between science and philosophy — but here’s a little task you can try that may make it clearer:

Go to ANY of Stapp’s writings or YouTube videos and find me a precise phrase or set of phrases where he shows that the purely physical investigation of the brain or of anything else in physics demonstrated the EXISTENCE of consciousness, much less its influence or effect on anything.

I can tell you now you won’t find anything — and if Stapp (or von Neumann) says so, I can tell you where they’re mistaking philosophic speculation for science.

I’ll repeat — there is currently not one scientific experiment that exists (or that ever has existed) that — ACCORDING TO THE RULES OF EVIDENCE IN PHYSICS — can even show consciousness EXISTS much less does anything anywhere in the universe.

Just in case it's not absolutely clear - I'm NOT saying Stapp is wrong. He may be right. That's not my point. I'm saying ANYTHING a physicist says about consciousness is not physics or psychology or science of any kind. It is philosophy This is crucial because if you say that a scientist has PROVED that something is true about consciousness, you'll quite readily find thousands of scientists who will quite correctly tell you that science has proved no such thing. And your idea about consciousness may be correct but they're also correct that your speculation is not scientific (nor is it unscientific - it's just not something science is currently capable of saying ANYTHING about..