consciousness:
"it's like, i read about consciousness, and the articles have questions like what is it and so forth, but i mean, surely to a conscious person, it's pretty obvious what it is, right? it's thought. it seems weird, it's like they deal with the subject as though it's like a non-conscious person is writing, who really doesn't know what it is. it's not that mysterious, right? i mean, i know what it is, it's what's inside my head, doing the thinking, it's a part of the person that is me."
"yes, it's a bit like people who believe in materialism, they can't therefore explain what consciousness is, if all that's real is physical atoms or whatever. it's where materialism fails, i think."
"right. that's the problem. materialism can't be reconciled entirely with the fact that consciousness exists."
"also, i think consciousness being an invisible thing. it's something that scientists can't exactly measure, while obviously as a living person, it's obvious it exists."
"with all the interest in simulation theory, i think the tide has turned against materialism, you know, that all there is is physical atoms and so on."
CLEARCHARGE
Showing posts with label consciousness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label consciousness. Show all posts
Saturday, February 4, 2017
Friday, December 25, 2015
Conscious Think
conscious think:
it is apparent that the conscious person is, if you like, in the driver's seat in life. you have, in fixed real space, an immobile clump of matter, call it consciousness, or think, surrounded by light, sound, in a working system, and consciousness manipulates the field around it. "brain in a vat" is quite a material description, and what is material, after all? light makes illusion and what seems material is in some sense a trick of the light, the material can be seen, first of all. indeed, the material involves light and its rules and the sense of touch. in reality the think matter in your head is surrounded by different matter, least bits of matter connected in a numerically huge network, all chained together.
you might think that consciousness is special, as it is the driver. it seems the field around it is all for the driver, so to speak. or you could think that the consciousness has a job, a responsibility, as it has control. but really, what can the consciousness know but its own consciousness first of all, is that why consciousness is special?
what is thought? well, you can think about light, sound, that is, other types of matter, very real things, or it could become abstract. why do we use language? what is the power of certain words? unique words change the think crystals in our heads a certain way, we arrive at something abstract. posit that our native languages are not truly learned with any effort, that such a language with its words naturally lead to certain states of meaning in our heads.
the question becomes what is the limit of abstract thought? it is noticeable, asleep, we have thoughts that we cannot define or easily explain, a general mood often being the only explanation. while we are awake, the think is less abstract, we often think about light and sound, that's where the bias is. asleep, it is more abstract.
what is the original state of consciousness? is there a cycle in which reset to the original states for each think least bit of matter happens? well, can we remember time zero? what is the original balance between real and abstract thought?
CLEARCHARGE
it is apparent that the conscious person is, if you like, in the driver's seat in life. you have, in fixed real space, an immobile clump of matter, call it consciousness, or think, surrounded by light, sound, in a working system, and consciousness manipulates the field around it. "brain in a vat" is quite a material description, and what is material, after all? light makes illusion and what seems material is in some sense a trick of the light, the material can be seen, first of all. indeed, the material involves light and its rules and the sense of touch. in reality the think matter in your head is surrounded by different matter, least bits of matter connected in a numerically huge network, all chained together.
you might think that consciousness is special, as it is the driver. it seems the field around it is all for the driver, so to speak. or you could think that the consciousness has a job, a responsibility, as it has control. but really, what can the consciousness know but its own consciousness first of all, is that why consciousness is special?
what is thought? well, you can think about light, sound, that is, other types of matter, very real things, or it could become abstract. why do we use language? what is the power of certain words? unique words change the think crystals in our heads a certain way, we arrive at something abstract. posit that our native languages are not truly learned with any effort, that such a language with its words naturally lead to certain states of meaning in our heads.
the question becomes what is the limit of abstract thought? it is noticeable, asleep, we have thoughts that we cannot define or easily explain, a general mood often being the only explanation. while we are awake, the think is less abstract, we often think about light and sound, that's where the bias is. asleep, it is more abstract.
what is the original state of consciousness? is there a cycle in which reset to the original states for each think least bit of matter happens? well, can we remember time zero? what is the original balance between real and abstract thought?
CLEARCHARGE
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Ask of What You Think
ask of what you think:
"so your thought process is often a little vague to start with. maybe what you're thinking about has been in your subconscious for a while and only now you're really thinking about it. what comes from the subconscious may seem random and disorganized. it's the conscious thinker's job to organize it, if you like, to have it make sense and to question the assumptions it rests on. it may be thinking of an action, for example, something you should do. well, the first assumption you've made is that the action is possible and the second is that it is a good thing. if we examine the action part, we need to define our terms, what exactly is the action? if we express this as a sentence, what does each word mean exactly? then we can consider whether it is truly possible or not. the second part is an opinion and based on our own personal value systems, what is good and what is bad."
"most thoughts don't come into our consciousness with everything so clearly defined. i guess the subconscious is like a melting pot of ideas, mixing and combining them all the time. and what's going on in the subconscious is often not pretty, it's based on fears."
"what makes the conscious mind different from the subconscious is that it asks questions and isn't really satisfied until it has answers."
CLEARCHARGE
"so your thought process is often a little vague to start with. maybe what you're thinking about has been in your subconscious for a while and only now you're really thinking about it. what comes from the subconscious may seem random and disorganized. it's the conscious thinker's job to organize it, if you like, to have it make sense and to question the assumptions it rests on. it may be thinking of an action, for example, something you should do. well, the first assumption you've made is that the action is possible and the second is that it is a good thing. if we examine the action part, we need to define our terms, what exactly is the action? if we express this as a sentence, what does each word mean exactly? then we can consider whether it is truly possible or not. the second part is an opinion and based on our own personal value systems, what is good and what is bad."
"most thoughts don't come into our consciousness with everything so clearly defined. i guess the subconscious is like a melting pot of ideas, mixing and combining them all the time. and what's going on in the subconscious is often not pretty, it's based on fears."
"what makes the conscious mind different from the subconscious is that it asks questions and isn't really satisfied until it has answers."
CLEARCHARGE
Saturday, September 7, 2013
To Think Awake and Asleep
to think awake and asleep:
we have few words as signifiers for the various states of what is perhaps the most important component of our minds, our consciousness and its cycle of change. for something that is complex, that could be considered to have many different states, we commonly reduce this to two words, "awake" and "asleep", or "conscious" and "unconscious". is it really that simple? or is this a prime example of the poverty of the language in its current form?
let us deconstruct the situation. when we are awake we are self consciously thinking, our thoughts are clearer, and so the word "think" is linked to the word "consciousness". now i seek to dismiss the most common false assumption which springs from this, that when we are asleep or unconscious we are not thinking at all, that consciousness equates to thinking and unconsciousness to no thinking, like a dead animal in our sleep, so to speak. indeed, i posit that we are thinking all the time, that a fundamental part of the self is the eternal thinker, that we can never stop thinking, even in our sleep.
however, the quality, so to speak, of what our thought is when we are asleep may be very different. words that you would associate with thinking whilst awake are "clear", "focused", "distinct", "conceptual". words that you would associate with thinking whilst asleep or unconscious might be "blurry", "cloudy", "thematic", "moody", "emotional", "stuck", etc. generally, thinking when awake could be slow or fast. when asleep without dreaming, it seems slow. thought is most volatile upon falling asleep and waking up and when dreaming.
you would think, at the very least, this subject deserves a greater, more precise vocabulary, to eliminate the misconceptions arising from the over simplistic present binary terms, "awake" and "asleep".
CLEARCHARGE
we have few words as signifiers for the various states of what is perhaps the most important component of our minds, our consciousness and its cycle of change. for something that is complex, that could be considered to have many different states, we commonly reduce this to two words, "awake" and "asleep", or "conscious" and "unconscious". is it really that simple? or is this a prime example of the poverty of the language in its current form?
let us deconstruct the situation. when we are awake we are self consciously thinking, our thoughts are clearer, and so the word "think" is linked to the word "consciousness". now i seek to dismiss the most common false assumption which springs from this, that when we are asleep or unconscious we are not thinking at all, that consciousness equates to thinking and unconsciousness to no thinking, like a dead animal in our sleep, so to speak. indeed, i posit that we are thinking all the time, that a fundamental part of the self is the eternal thinker, that we can never stop thinking, even in our sleep.
however, the quality, so to speak, of what our thought is when we are asleep may be very different. words that you would associate with thinking whilst awake are "clear", "focused", "distinct", "conceptual". words that you would associate with thinking whilst asleep or unconscious might be "blurry", "cloudy", "thematic", "moody", "emotional", "stuck", etc. generally, thinking when awake could be slow or fast. when asleep without dreaming, it seems slow. thought is most volatile upon falling asleep and waking up and when dreaming.
you would think, at the very least, this subject deserves a greater, more precise vocabulary, to eliminate the misconceptions arising from the over simplistic present binary terms, "awake" and "asleep".
CLEARCHARGE
Saturday, June 8, 2013
The Voyage of Sleep
the voyage of sleep:
"...so at one point i used to think that sleep was kind of like being dead, but that wasn't very satisfactory, in that you don't really know what death is, right? all the time you're alive, being dead is just some vague as yet undefined state of being, or not being, like nobody knows what death is while they are alive, right?"
"i used to think that when you are fast asleep, you're just not thinking, so you don't remember anything when you wake up."
"right. so sleep, and in extension, death, seems like an absence of thought. i mean the word "consciousness" is used, but like all words, i mean, if words and thought were like food, a particular word has its own unique flavour, right? all the words that mean the same thing, all the synonyms, might be like one type of food, like ice cream, but ice cream comes in all these different flavours, and so do words. for me, the word "consciousness" seems to suggest something mystical and fragile and fleeting, but it means the same thing as the phrase "thought in your head", right?"
"how about head think?"
"yeah. so words have different connotations. but the most commonly used words might not be the best or the simplest words. sometimes it seems the oddest words get promoted the most. it's like the most popular sandwich was banana with mustard and cucumber on raisin bread! but i digress..."
"you were talking about sleep and consciousness."
"again the word "consciousness" just makes it seem like it could go at any moment, like it was a flickering candle flame or something, and you know any minute something could come along and put it out. you know, maybe it's just the wrong word."
"right, but we are stuck with it, don't you think? as much as you'd like to, you can't change the vocabulary. anyway, i don't believe that you're not thinking whilst you're asleep anymore. i wanted to try to, you know, like observe myself as i was falling asleep, and remember what was happening."
"monitor yourself, like thinking about what was going on while you were falling asleep?"
"exactly. and a few times as i was falling asleep, i forced myself awake, you know, sat up suddenly so i could think about what i was thinking just before. and it's like, as you are falling asleep, everything in your mind becomes cloudy and violent, in that your thoughts change really fast, and they don't make much sense. you certainly couldn't easily explain in language what you were thinking about clearly. and then, yesterday, i had been drinking coffee, and i woke up further along the sleep cycle, i think actually just fallen completely asleep and then suddenly awake and i realized, you are completely thinking all the time you are asleep, that you stop thinking is a complete lie."
"i know but what you are thinking, or the quality of your thinking, if thoughts could be conceived of as like a matter substance like a diamond, are completely different to what they are when you are awake. it's like the mind switches to another substance."
"yeah, so my head could be like a giant crystal glass marble, but it's a magical marble and keeps changing inside."
"yes. during consciousness, it's say more or less clear and slow swirls and waves happening inside but as you fall asleep, the marble clouds over like you're saying and it's almost getting violent inside, everything is moving and twisting and turning so fast. that's probably why most of the time you can't remember what happens at this stage."
"yes, it's ironic. sleep seems slow and peaceful but what is really happening in the first stage is completely not."
CLEARCHARGE
"...so at one point i used to think that sleep was kind of like being dead, but that wasn't very satisfactory, in that you don't really know what death is, right? all the time you're alive, being dead is just some vague as yet undefined state of being, or not being, like nobody knows what death is while they are alive, right?"
"i used to think that when you are fast asleep, you're just not thinking, so you don't remember anything when you wake up."
"right. so sleep, and in extension, death, seems like an absence of thought. i mean the word "consciousness" is used, but like all words, i mean, if words and thought were like food, a particular word has its own unique flavour, right? all the words that mean the same thing, all the synonyms, might be like one type of food, like ice cream, but ice cream comes in all these different flavours, and so do words. for me, the word "consciousness" seems to suggest something mystical and fragile and fleeting, but it means the same thing as the phrase "thought in your head", right?"
"how about head think?"
"yeah. so words have different connotations. but the most commonly used words might not be the best or the simplest words. sometimes it seems the oddest words get promoted the most. it's like the most popular sandwich was banana with mustard and cucumber on raisin bread! but i digress..."
"you were talking about sleep and consciousness."
"again the word "consciousness" just makes it seem like it could go at any moment, like it was a flickering candle flame or something, and you know any minute something could come along and put it out. you know, maybe it's just the wrong word."
"right, but we are stuck with it, don't you think? as much as you'd like to, you can't change the vocabulary. anyway, i don't believe that you're not thinking whilst you're asleep anymore. i wanted to try to, you know, like observe myself as i was falling asleep, and remember what was happening."
"monitor yourself, like thinking about what was going on while you were falling asleep?"
"exactly. and a few times as i was falling asleep, i forced myself awake, you know, sat up suddenly so i could think about what i was thinking just before. and it's like, as you are falling asleep, everything in your mind becomes cloudy and violent, in that your thoughts change really fast, and they don't make much sense. you certainly couldn't easily explain in language what you were thinking about clearly. and then, yesterday, i had been drinking coffee, and i woke up further along the sleep cycle, i think actually just fallen completely asleep and then suddenly awake and i realized, you are completely thinking all the time you are asleep, that you stop thinking is a complete lie."
"i know but what you are thinking, or the quality of your thinking, if thoughts could be conceived of as like a matter substance like a diamond, are completely different to what they are when you are awake. it's like the mind switches to another substance."
"yeah, so my head could be like a giant crystal glass marble, but it's a magical marble and keeps changing inside."
"yes. during consciousness, it's say more or less clear and slow swirls and waves happening inside but as you fall asleep, the marble clouds over like you're saying and it's almost getting violent inside, everything is moving and twisting and turning so fast. that's probably why most of the time you can't remember what happens at this stage."
"yes, it's ironic. sleep seems slow and peaceful but what is really happening in the first stage is completely not."
CLEARCHARGE
Sunday, May 20, 2012
A Motion in Time
a motion in time:
the mind is an excitable creature and easily led by its own interests and concerns. when a lot happens, our senses force many changes in our consciousness. we are caught up in the moment. our minds are almost distorted by events, though these do not have a lasting effect on our consciousness, for like an elastic band, they revert to what they once were, or like sand castles by the sea, the tide washes them away, and our minds forget.
things could be divided into those that are volatile, like the life of our minds, where much happens, and those that are not, where very little happens. if everything could be represented visually and we could sit in a control room where everything was shown on a bank of screens, we might see such a difference, one mind's thoughts, the words and images on one screen, the passing of the day on another, perhaps a still image on yet another, which never changes.
memory and the future both relate to our emotions. when we are emotional we may remember things better. it is a motion in time, if you like, that is captured. and our emotions ensure that certain things must happen, things that we want, and that certain things never happen, things that we fear or hate. in the belief that the mind is eternal, that it always did and always will exist, the question of the start of time and our memory of it emerges. when there are many things unknown to us, we become nervous or even scared. on the first day, we knew very little, therefore logically, the day was one of great fear and emotion, so we should remember something of it.
CLEARCHARGE
the mind is an excitable creature and easily led by its own interests and concerns. when a lot happens, our senses force many changes in our consciousness. we are caught up in the moment. our minds are almost distorted by events, though these do not have a lasting effect on our consciousness, for like an elastic band, they revert to what they once were, or like sand castles by the sea, the tide washes them away, and our minds forget.
things could be divided into those that are volatile, like the life of our minds, where much happens, and those that are not, where very little happens. if everything could be represented visually and we could sit in a control room where everything was shown on a bank of screens, we might see such a difference, one mind's thoughts, the words and images on one screen, the passing of the day on another, perhaps a still image on yet another, which never changes.
memory and the future both relate to our emotions. when we are emotional we may remember things better. it is a motion in time, if you like, that is captured. and our emotions ensure that certain things must happen, things that we want, and that certain things never happen, things that we fear or hate. in the belief that the mind is eternal, that it always did and always will exist, the question of the start of time and our memory of it emerges. when there are many things unknown to us, we become nervous or even scared. on the first day, we knew very little, therefore logically, the day was one of great fear and emotion, so we should remember something of it.
CLEARCHARGE
Monday, April 23, 2012
The Place of Consciousness
the place of consciousness:
located in space are many, or few perhaps, centres of mental activity, each point being where individual consciousness lies, surrounded by a vivid, fluctuating field, different and to a degree separate from all others. was this arrangement always thus or was it created or was it shared?
what controls the flow of conscious thought? other than light and sound? raw data from the unconscious mind? we are so locked into thinking about what we see and hear that other things have less of a place in our thoughts.
consciousness endlessly mixes and matches ideas together to form new concepts. some thoughts are well defined, some only vague. we don't always know what we are thinking about! consciousness is a speculator, an explorer, a thing that is always chasing knowledge and understanding.
CLEARCHARGE
located in space are many, or few perhaps, centres of mental activity, each point being where individual consciousness lies, surrounded by a vivid, fluctuating field, different and to a degree separate from all others. was this arrangement always thus or was it created or was it shared?
what controls the flow of conscious thought? other than light and sound? raw data from the unconscious mind? we are so locked into thinking about what we see and hear that other things have less of a place in our thoughts.
consciousness endlessly mixes and matches ideas together to form new concepts. some thoughts are well defined, some only vague. we don't always know what we are thinking about! consciousness is a speculator, an explorer, a thing that is always chasing knowledge and understanding.
CLEARCHARGE
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Calculation and Consciousness and the Unconscious Mind
calculation and consciousness and the unconscious mind:
the human mind is not merely an observer and audience of its surrounding world, it is also able to think about what may be purely abstract and theoretical, it can process information in order to calculate a result. so often, a person judged to be most intelligent, is someone who is a powerful calculator, so to speak.
whatever it is in the mind that calculates, is it truly only an aspect of consciousness? or posit that the calculating component might be something based mostly in the unconscious mind. indeed, when we concentrate, think hard, conscious thoughts merely follow the workings of the calculating unconscious mind.
CLEARCHARGE
the human mind is not merely an observer and audience of its surrounding world, it is also able to think about what may be purely abstract and theoretical, it can process information in order to calculate a result. so often, a person judged to be most intelligent, is someone who is a powerful calculator, so to speak.
whatever it is in the mind that calculates, is it truly only an aspect of consciousness? or posit that the calculating component might be something based mostly in the unconscious mind. indeed, when we concentrate, think hard, conscious thoughts merely follow the workings of the calculating unconscious mind.
CLEARCHARGE
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