
Then I Am Myself the World: What Consciousness Is and How to Expand It

the human mind has fundamentally irrational elements. I’d go as far as to say that magical thinking forms the basis of selfhood. Our experience of ourselves and other people is essentially an act of imagination that can’t be sustained through wholly rational modes of thought. We see the light of consciousness in another’s eyes and, irresistibly, im
... See morePaul Broks • "Are Coincidences Real?" Essay on Aeson
Not only do we not agree on how to measure or recognize consciousness in others, but we are also unable to even “prove” it exists in ourselves. Science often dismisses our individual experiences—what it feels like to smell an orange, or to be in love—as qualia. We are left with theories and metaphors for consciousness: A stream of experience. A sel
... See moreRay Nayler • The Mountain in the Sea: A Novel
Ray Kurzweil • The Law of Accelerating Returns « the Kurzweil Library + collections
between logical and physical possibility and between phenomenal and psychological consciousness.