I am kind of confused about how we all collectively agreed to refer to the exact same feeling as “consciousness” while the details of it are in such great dispute.
I don’t think anyone’s really defined or measured the feelings to the point that we have ANY IDEA whether they’re the exact same, or even what “exact same” means. Most of us have agreed to refer to SOMETHING we each experience using this word, and some superficially-similar descriptions of “inner experience”, and “being there”.
Also, no, I don’t just feel it, man. Sorry about that.
You’re the first presumed-person I’ve encountered to claims not to feel it. Fascinating. Would you classify yourself as a P-Zombie, or do you have some other description of the thing that feels valence and preference over your experiences and behaviors?
(note: I’m very agnostic on free will—I suspect it’s illusion. But I definitely do experience something I call consciousness, and I find it easy to believe that other humans are rather similar in their experiences).
I wouldn’t really consider myself a p-zombie, I think, since if I lack something that other humans lack it is likely a strong feeling that I am conscious, which isn’t necessarily related to any actual thing that people might refer to by “consciousness”
I also find your writing and implied experience very strange. I remember the “this is me” feeling from quite a young age and definitely feeling it was important, something I felt without having it explained to me first, and a feeling that came first, before words to express it. In other words the origin of it wasn’t me being expected to talk about my feelings, but something that bubbled up from myself. However I definitely wouldn’t consider you a p-zombie as I believe animals with much less introspection than you have qualia, feel real pain etc and it is unethical to ignore that. Out of curiosity how big is your ego? I mean this in a curious, non-threatening way, as in do you consider yourself to be important, both good or bad? Do you care about continuing to exist as much as others around you do? Do assaults on your self, such as social roastings actually hurt and cause you to keep going over them in your head so as to avoid in the future? It may be simply that there is much less recursive “think about yourself” going on naturally in your brain. Like if you must think about nothing for say 10 mins, do your thoughts come back to yourself?
I consider myself to be fairly important to myself, I think about myself fairly often and am very introspective and reflective, I have strong preferences over what doesnand doesn’t happen to me.
I think you can define/measure something similar, the default mode network (DMN). The literature/AI thinks
Yes, the default mode network is related to some feelings people associate with consciousness, especially, selfhood, autobiographical memory, mind-wandering, inner narrative, rumination, imagining the future, “me-ness”. DMN activity seems closely related to the narrative/self-reflective layer of consciousness, not necessarily raw sentience or being awake at all.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the feeling of consciousness if pretty strongly correlated with this, and it can be measured. Having a very weak DMN however doesn’t make someone a p-zombie.
I don’t think anyone’s really defined or measured the feelings to the point that we have ANY IDEA whether they’re the exact same, or even what “exact same” means. Most of us have agreed to refer to SOMETHING we each experience using this word, and some superficially-similar descriptions of “inner experience”, and “being there”.
You’re the first presumed-person I’ve encountered to claims not to feel it. Fascinating. Would you classify yourself as a P-Zombie, or do you have some other description of the thing that feels valence and preference over your experiences and behaviors?
(note: I’m very agnostic on free will—I suspect it’s illusion. But I definitely do experience something I call consciousness, and I find it easy to believe that other humans are rather similar in their experiences).
I wouldn’t really consider myself a p-zombie, I think, since if I lack something that other humans lack it is likely a strong feeling that I am conscious, which isn’t necessarily related to any actual thing that people might refer to by “consciousness”
I also find your writing and implied experience very strange. I remember the “this is me” feeling from quite a young age and definitely feeling it was important, something I felt without having it explained to me first, and a feeling that came first, before words to express it. In other words the origin of it wasn’t me being expected to talk about my feelings, but something that bubbled up from myself. However I definitely wouldn’t consider you a p-zombie as I believe animals with much less introspection than you have qualia, feel real pain etc and it is unethical to ignore that.
Out of curiosity how big is your ego? I mean this in a curious, non-threatening way, as in do you consider yourself to be important, both good or bad? Do you care about continuing to exist as much as others around you do? Do assaults on your self, such as social roastings actually hurt and cause you to keep going over them in your head so as to avoid in the future?
It may be simply that there is much less recursive “think about yourself” going on naturally in your brain. Like if you must think about nothing for say 10 mins, do your thoughts come back to yourself?
I consider myself to be fairly important to myself, I think about myself fairly often and am very introspective and reflective, I have strong preferences over what doesnand doesn’t happen to me.
OK interesting. Not sure what is going on!
I think you can define/measure something similar, the default mode network (DMN). The literature/AI thinks
It wouldn’t surprise me if the feeling of consciousness if pretty strongly correlated with this, and it can be measured. Having a very weak DMN however doesn’t make someone a p-zombie.