[MD] Emergent Consciousness

[ian glendinning]

Thanks for the clarification / correction Arlo.
(Confidence in Einstein restored)

I paraphrased too roughly and missed the essential
"I" is an "optical delusion of consciousness"

I and my consciousness are equally parts of the whole of reality.

Ian

On 6/21/06, Arlo J. Bensinger <ajb102 at psu.edu> wrote:
> [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
>
>
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