If you realize that the space your brain takes is not special and holds no “soul”, it becomes obvious that consciousness must be sort of a field that sort of resonates with islands of enough complexity.
That means you are actually a billions-eyed monster whose eyes grow anew and go blind from time to time. Rather than fearing being gone, fear that you, right now and in the past, experience the horror of existence of all organisms that ever existed. Be thankful for your current “eye”’s relative comfort which is rare. And dread the next experience somewhere in <choose a shithole> as a <choose your species>.
Recently I've come to accept this view as well. In a way consciousness isn't a thing to be destroyed or created, but rather it's a kind of immutable force that emerges sometimes given the right hardware instruments (human body, elephants, apes, octopuses, etc). The body equipment implants senses and feedback unto consciousness when it develops. Ofc, all that we really know of the universe is through conscious awareness. Perhaps consciousness is to humans like water is to fish, and we can't ever truly know what consciousness is 'outside of itself'.
> If you realize that the space your brain takes is not special and holds no “soul”, it becomes obvious that consciousness must be sort of a field that sort of resonates with islands of enough complexity.
But if you believe that, then truth, wisdom, justice and love are as meaninglessly attractive as turds to the little buzzing flies we are.
Alternatively, maybe what you think of as the cold, hard reality is just the best reality your tiny pink meat brain can understand and reality us much, much richer.
I don't have anything to say on the nature of consciousness , but I think truth, wisdom, etc. are meaningful because I make them so. As a collective, we make them so (but with different ideas, of course). My username means void or emptiness in Latin. It used to just be a kewl word but then I attributed my own meaning to it: we as humans live as if in a personal void that we fill with experiences, beliefs, thoughts, ideals. Paint a universe on your canvas and maybe it'll come to be that way. It's the same as painting yourself. Gaze into a mirror and see not just your literal appearance but the you that you are. You've known yourself all along, but perhaps you just haven't realized it yet.
the fact that you are an intelligent being instead of, say, a mosquito (which would be a million times more likely), then perhaps means that intelligent beings are more likely to be a source of consciousness ... ?
A mosquito couldn’t post this comment, so isn’t this fact just an effect of anthropic principle.
I don’t think c. is a binary attribute or even a linear one. C. is a set of experiences and qualia. A human has many, a mosquito less and/or different, a tree (a forest?) maybe zero or lost in the noise.
That means you are actually a billions-eyed monster whose eyes grow anew and go blind from time to time. Rather than fearing being gone, fear that you, right now and in the past, experience the horror of existence of all organisms that ever existed. Be thankful for your current “eye”’s relative comfort which is rare. And dread the next experience somewhere in <choose a shithole> as a <choose your species>.