The self-proclaimed skeptical elite delight in using the maxim "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence," yet they're strangely adverse to admitting that consciousness/self-awareness could possibly be an epiphenomenon (that is, a by-product of brain function rather than its purpose). Surely the concept that consciousness is a patterning of information is less "extraordinary" than requiring some unspecified "ghost in the machine"?
Committed skeptics secretly hope that awareness lasts after the death of the physical brain. And who knows? Perhaps it does. As maverick ufologist Albert Budden points out, Occam's Razor is flawed. We're not looking for the simplest answer; we're looking -- one hopes -- for the right answer.
Mars: The Angry Red Planet.
Book update: Looks as if I'll be including an apocalyptic Mars scenario from John Brandenburg alongside Tom Van Flandern's Exploded Planet Hypothesis. This book may require a sequel!
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