Self-Consciousness
From CasGroup
(→A strange loop) |
(→Insight in confusion) |
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If the self is an illusion, an imaginary construct of the brain, then you may ask "if the self is unreal, then who is reading this?". So maybe it is more precise to say that the self is a confusing insight or an insightful confusion. At the heart of self-consciousness lies confusion tangled up with insights like a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabi%E2%80%93Yau_manifold Calabi–Yau manifold]. The essence of self-consciousness seems to be this strange combination of insight and confusion. It is an insight which causes confusion, or a confusion combined with an insight. Insights and analogies are like a source or flood of information. Confusions and contradictions are like a sink or drain of information. Because self-consciousness is a strange combination of both, it is best described as a whirl or chaotic mix of neural information flow. | If the self is an illusion, an imaginary construct of the brain, then you may ask "if the self is unreal, then who is reading this?". So maybe it is more precise to say that the self is a confusing insight or an insightful confusion. At the heart of self-consciousness lies confusion tangled up with insights like a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabi%E2%80%93Yau_manifold Calabi–Yau manifold]. The essence of self-consciousness seems to be this strange combination of insight and confusion. It is an insight which causes confusion, or a confusion combined with an insight. Insights and analogies are like a source or flood of information. Confusions and contradictions are like a sink or drain of information. Because self-consciousness is a strange combination of both, it is best described as a whirl or chaotic mix of neural information flow. | ||
| - | Dan Dennett says it is uncomfortable to understand consciousness. People don't want it explained. They don't want to know that they are just machinery and that their self is a convenient fiction or, in Dennett's words "an imaginary center of narrative gravity" (which would imply to doubt their own existence). That's the paradox of self-consciousness: we become aware of our own | + | Dan Dennett says it is uncomfortable to understand consciousness. People don't want it explained. They don't want to know that they are just machinery and that their self is a convenient fiction or, in Dennett's words "an imaginary center of narrative gravity" (which would imply to doubt their own existence). That's the paradox of self-consciousness: '''we become aware of our own existence by inventing a self which does not exist''' - a self which is only apparent at the level of symbols and thoughts which are represented by a very large number of flickering and fleeting neural assemblies. |
== What is the secret ingredient ? == | == What is the secret ingredient ? == | ||
