It's closer than reliant on, isn't it ? Experience is matter unless you propose a consciousness/matter dualism ? So are you getting at some sort of universal consciousness which is present at universal heat death, but with nothing happening to reflect on ?
So what kind of consciousness would that be ?
I'm not positing any consciousness at all upon the heat death of the Universe. Just as I would not posit any consciousness on Earth if the Earth did not exist or if the Sun was too hot to support life on Earth. Edit: This might not rule out the possibility for sentience to arise if there are other Universes or sentience somehow arising beyond the ordinary material means for it in other Universes/planes (if they exist).
It's closer than reliant on, isn't it ? Experience is matter unless you propose a consciousness/matter dualism ? So are you getting at some sort of universal consciousness which is present at universal heat death, but with nothing happening to reflect on ?
So what kind of consciousness would that be ?
I'm not positing a dualism between the two since there is a direct, interdependent, causal relationship between experience and matter, but I'm not sure if "experience/sensations IS matter."
For example, are sensations made up of quarks which in turn are made into sub-atomic particles combined with electrons which then in turn form into atoms which then form into molecules which form into chemical substances which then form into DNA, cells, etc? This seems to only apply to the operations of the material body which creates the sense of experience, but how is this actual experience itself?
Now we could posit that experience IS energy and that is fair enough. However, all of our definitions of energy are with regard to material extrapolations from sensations/experience, so it is difficult to get a good definition exactly. There is no absolute measure of energy. It is determined by objects and their properties. For example, the potential energy of a ball is determined by its height above the ground. This has nothing to do with the properties of the actual sensations of seeing that ball sitting at a spot flickering on and off in actual experience. There is the energy in a quanta of light or photon, but that is also not the same thing as the visual sensations flickering on and off which is simply an interpratation of that light by the brain after entering the eyes.
Also, if there is no difference between the two, then you would also have to consider whether or not "matter IS experience".... (If Experience = Matter then Matter = Experience)
For example, the Sun is way too hot to support life or consciousness so it would not make sense to say that the material operations of the Sun is the same thing as sentient experience. However, could the Sun be our intepretation of the workings of another consciousness? Maybe, but that seems pretty out there...
There is some fundamental relationship between the two, but I'm not sure if anyone knows exactly what that is.