[MD] Emergent Consciousness

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

[Ian]
I say consiciousness is an illusion, only in the sense that it's not quite what
we (traditionally) think it is, in exactly the same way that I is itself an
"illusion".

Highly abstract, emergent, intangible, many layers above the physical. But it's
real enough.

[Arlo]
I don't think Einstein said "consciousness is an illusion", but our experience
that our consciousness is separate is the illusion. He says,

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us 'universe', a part limited in
time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something
separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal
desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to
free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace
all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

This "optical delusion" of the self separate from the 'universe' is, to
Einstein, a prison of our own making. Notice how the last line of this quote
ties into Pirsig's "part of the world, and not an enemy of it" description of
arete (as exemplified in Ancient Greece).

That consciousness is real, I have no doubt. That mine is "proprietary" and in
no way interconnected with yours, this is the optical delusion. And one some
feel very strong psychological pangs to cling to.

As Pirsig says, "[The mythos is] the huge body of common knowledge that unites
our minds as cells are united in the body of man. To feel that one is not so
united, that one can accept or discard this mythos as one pleases, is not to
understand what the mythos is. ... So your definition [of the Quality stimulus]
is made up of what you know. It’s an analogue to what you already know. It has
to be. It can’t be anything else. And the mythos grows this way. By analogies
to what is known before. The mythos is a building of analogues upon analogues
upon analogues. These fill the collective consciousness of all communicating
mankind. Every last bit of it."

Arlo