The Nature of "Self" and "Consciousness"

[Carlo]

[HarryStottle]

[Carlo]

Well in as much as you don't directly address the issue of consciousness I now from personal experience grasp that you are providing, among other things, a coherent and sane platform to explore this fifth question of human experience.

My next challenge is not as philosophical but much more practical, I feel the need to try to scratch the armor on this book because I've never come across anything else which I felt might save our collective @sses from these silly messes we rustled up. I'm very curious as to your method of implementation, I know I've spread the word whenever possible but it's pretty difficult to get people to sit down and have a read, much less take these ideals to the street, neighborhood, or borough. You say that your intention has never been to upset our notions of existence, and for the humble masses that notion has never been seriously at jeopardy from anyone's attack, so bringing doubt into that arena..be it drug, philosophy, meditation, or whathaveyou basically freaks people out.

As much as the Authoritarians play out their adopted platonic guardian roles, we the people would mostly choose the bronze status over the mental anguish of having their metaphysical feet swept out from underneath them. It seems to me that you might have to create and employ exactly such a devise as you describe simply to shake people of enough to accept the initial premise of uncertainty. Such guerrilla tactics aren't currently feasible, unless you're as well a mad scientist tinkering away as we speak. The rest of our discussion is absolutely enjoyable and I would love it to continue, but even more I'd like to see your message hit a wide enough audience to inform a movement which seems at the verge of sparking given the recent unrest in london and greece most noticeably, but the world at large as well. Feel free to repost this under a different category as it really has little to do with my initial contentions, and again thanks for humoring this little anarchist mind of mine.

[HarryStottle]

hmmm...

I think I'll leave a copy here AND repost it as a "General Chat" item under a new Topic. Something like "Implementing Change - How?" or some such. Gonna think about it a while.

What you seem to be suggesting - which I've never really considered - is that unless we can "shock" the complacency (about the "certainty of existence") out of the average citizen, then they won't even stick around for the rest of the message.

Hence the hint that I might need to build a VR machine to demonstrate the point. Well, much as I'd like to, that ain't part of my skill set! However, the geeks are on the march and the kind of VR which will have the dramatic effect we're talking about will, I'm confident, be on the streets within the next couple of decades, which, in historical terms, is the blink of an eye.

What I would hope I can achieve by then is a) the completion of the task I have set myself and b) finding ways (or collaborators) to make it much more accessible and digestible to those with the attention span of the average citizen. So that once the philosophical consequences of the "holodeck" sink in, we will not see a mad rush into solipsistic retreat because there will be a reasonable guide to what it means ready and waiting.

However, the immediate practical question is, given these insights, what can we do today, that will improve our chances of seeing that tomorrow?

You're one of a handful of readers and friends who are beginning to ask me that kind of question and I think perhaps it's time we started addressing it!

[Jesus 2.3]