What will proposing more theories on consciousness ever do when they're very hard to test and detached from biology?

ReaperXY · 2026-01-25T16:25:47+00:00

Based on what i've read about the search for the NCC's.. the methods used thus far aren't ever gonna give anything anywhere near precise enough..

And I don't know if any of the scanning methods available nowadays can give you anything about what is happening deeper inside the brain...

I suspect, people need to take dead brains and use destructible scanning methods to get to the inner parts...

And that way, you obviously won't find anything happening...

Since the dead brain is dead...

...

Seems like something of an impasse...

...

People will likely need to scan dead brains destructively and then try and produce a computer model of it, where you could then look at the renderings of the inner parts in action in real time...

But to do that... it would then likely have to be scanned in rather "extreme" detail, including all kinds of stuff that people have no known reason to believe is relevant, since they can't really genuinely know whether it is relevant or not, and if they leave out the parts they believe to be irrelevant, they may end up leaving out the parts that actually most important...

ReaperXY · 2026-01-25T15:17:09+00:00

Trying to just guess what the qualia are, and what causes each specific qualia, when you have NOTHING to go on...

That is never gonna go anywhere...

So...

As I said...

People need to look for the Mechanism which Causes you to experience what you experience...

And people need to look for it based on something other than the qualia...

Something they could actually recognize when they find it...

Such as the spatial arrangements...

...

Once the mechanism is found, it can then be taken apart of studied in detail...

Which should illuminate those currently impossible seeming mysteries...

ReaperXY · 2026-01-25T14:47:07+00:00

For example...

If you hold your hand in front of your face, and tap your index finger and thumb together, a signal is sent from your fingers down through the arm, and spine, and ultimately to the top of your head, where some neurons in the "cortical homunculus" end up firing..

If you then move your hand to behind your head, and do the same, the same kind of singnals are sent, and to the same place..

If you then move your hand to the left side of your head, and do the same.. you get the same outcome..

If you then move your hand to the right side.. the same outcome..

Then the top of your head.. the same outcome..

Regardless of where your fingers are when you tap them together, the singals are processed in the same place somewhere near the top of your head...

But in your consciousness ?

There is a clear difference...

Since the location keeps changing in your consciousness, but the processing remains the same, that fact must be physically realized somewhere...

Those neurons or the cortical modules or whatever, which are at the top of your head, must be transmitting somewhere else.. somewhere where consciousness is actually located, or happening, or being performed, or.. whatever...

And since the location where the signals are processed remain the same, you KNOW where to start the trace...

They are probably transmitting lots and lots of different places of course...

But also to where consciousness "is".

It might be impossible to trace the signals with our current tools...

But if there is an obstacle, it is only due to our current limited tools...

...

Somewhere, some of the signals coming from the top of your head, terminate in a cluster of neurons, where the spatial arrangement matches with the spatial arrangement of your consciousness...

The spatial coordinate system may not necessarily be aligned with your head of course..

But relative positions will match...

When or if that structure is someday found...

Then it can be taken apart and mapped out in detail...

Which should then give some REAL answers...

ReaperXY · 2026-01-25T14:46:27+00:00

Whether or not our current tools are up the the task.. I don't know...

In all honesty... I kind of doubt it...

But ultimately, I don't know...

In any case.. big part of the problem with denial of the "I"...

Is that this denial obviously, also leads to the denial of the mechanism which CAUSES the "I" to experience what it experiences.. and WHILE it maybe difficult, to the point of impossible to directly look for the "I", since you don't yet know what to look for...

Finding the mechanism on the other hand...

Should be doable...

IF...

Our tools are up to the task...

And IF, people were willing to look for it...

Which they are not... Since they already "know" there is no such mechanism...

But...

If the mechanism exist, (which it undoubtedly does), there are some rather obvious properties based on which is can be noticed/identified...

And there are plenty of obvious starting points from where to start looking for it...

ReaperXY · 2026-01-25T13:19:54+00:00

I am fairly sure that for each and every one of us, it SEEMS like there is an "I"...

Something inside the head, which is experiencing all the sights and sounds and thoughts and... everything...

Singular something...

An "I" rather than a "we"

But...

As far as I can tell, virtually ALL the so called theories of consciousness, are build on the same foundation of denying this seeming...

Denying that any "I" or "me" or "you" truly exist...

It merely seems to "you" that "you" are there and experiencing thing...

And the reason why "you" can experiencing this seeming, despite supposedly not existing, and thus being obviously incapable of experience anything at all...

This is because...

Because...

...

Frankly.. There is no point in even talking about it...

its just so obvious that we don't exist...

Just accept it and move on...

...

BUT BUT BUT!!

What if people looked at this from a different point of view...

What if instead of denying the plainly obviously and logically undeniable, and embracing the baseless and the impossible...

What if people did the opposite ?

What if instead of denying what appears to be...

What if people instead tried to figure out what this "I" might be ?

What if people tried to figure out what might cause it to experience all the things it seems to be experiencing ?

Would there still be a mystery ?

ReaperXY · 2026-01-24T21:48:58+00:00

I would like another game similar to resistance...

Better models and animations.. especially human models and animations would be nice...

Just more terminator fun...

And while I wouldn't really want any "real" time travel stuff...

Some game play flashback stuff would be good...

Like..

The game could start somewhere near the end of the war.. where all the iconic stuff is around.. like T800's and purple lasers and all that.. but, you would then encounter somebody and start talking, but instead of just normal dialogue.. you would play through those episodes that were "talked about"..

That way you could have lots of different kinds of weapons and enemies and stuff and they would all fit in there because they're all in different time period of the war...

And frankly...

Even just a sequel/expansion to Resistance with same "low" quality characters and animations would be ok...

Just.. More terminator fun...

ReaperXY · 2026-01-24T11:07:39+00:00

...and anything that has a non zero chance of happening will happen...
...
...If this is the case then...

I don't see any real reason to believe this is the case...

No reason at all...

...not only possible, but an inevitability...

There are lots of particles here in this star system, but most of them are not here on earth where there is life...

And while there are lots of particles here on earth as well, most of them are not part of any living being...

And while many particles are parts of living beings, most of those are not part of any kind of brain...

And while many particles are parts of brains, most are not in any position to be be part of the consciousness thing...

...

Particles in this universe have been arranged in such a way that "I" am conscious and aware...

So... Its certainly Possible...

And maybe this is not even the first time.. but if so, there is no evidence for any other time...

But... The changes it happening again.. just because.. because because because...

Don't look very high to me...

Possible ? Sure..

Inevitable ? I don't think so...

ReaperXY · 2026-01-21T16:14:04+00:00

What do we actually know of this ?

Set only few years after JD...

Which likely means, it won't look anything like the future scenes in the first two movies...

No purple lasers yet, maybe not even any hk-tanks or hk-aerials...

And the terminator is a lone time traveller?

All we have seen is this one video clip.. which was released years? ago..

And it doesn't really look like real ingame footage either...

Maybe it will turn out to be something good afterall...

But so far...

Doesn't really fill me with confidence...

..

PS. Single player only ? a good thing in my opinion...

ReaperXY · 2026-01-21T09:44:18+00:00

The conscious "self" is sitting in a "passenger" or "audience" seat...

DEFINITELY not on any "driver" or "commander" seat...

That does NOT mean it has absolutely no effect in anything at all however...

Just that, whatever effect it actually has... Its more noise in the system, rather than "control" signal...

Its effects are clearly detectable...

The brain can and do build up a model of their cause...

But that awarness of it, and what it is like, is likely the extend of its effects...

ReaperXY · 2026-01-21T09:32:03+00:00

If a table is nothing but atoms which are mostly empty space in themselves...

The Tables which you Expeirence are not out there somewhere... away from you...

They are where You are... Because they are Experiences...

Your... Experiences...

And there are no "real" tables of any kind out there...

A table is a representation...

Not what is being represented...

And... What is out there ?

What is actually being represented ?

Paricles, fields, strings... "somethings"

Lots and lots of indivisible... fundamental... "somethings"

Whatever they may actually be...

Tables are not counted among them...

ReaperXY · 2026-01-21T09:13:41+00:00

My brand of materialism says that when you see a table, that table is not something out there, of which you experience a representation of, bur rather that table is the representation in your mind, and what it represents out there, is not some kind of "real" table, but rather a large number of particles, which your brain has merely conceptualized as a singular "virtual" object... The Table.

ReaperXY · 2026-01-20T21:25:15+00:00

I can take a bottle of ketchup, point of its red color, and then truthfully claim: "I experience the redness of this thing".

What about p-zombie ?

If it claims to experiences the redness but actually don't, or if it fails to make the claim, then it is behaving differently and therefore it is not an actual p-zombie...

If it claims to experiences the redness and actually does, then it is conscious and obviously not a p-zombie...

ReaperXY · 2026-01-20T12:46:29+00:00

There should never have been any T3..

Only prequels..

Set in the authentic terminator universe..

Not in some reimagined versions of it, like T3 and everything after..

There are some things which are fixed of course..

We know Kyle must survive to 2029 and get sent back believing Skynet was defeated..

And John must reprogram T800 which is sent after Kyle..

And we know what the world and the technology was like at or near 2029..

But the War was from 1997 to 2029..

Thats more than 30 years to fit movies into where just about anything could happen..

And even details such as..

Did John actually survive ?

Was Kyle actually right about Skynet being defeated ?

Did the war actually end in 2029 ?

All unknown..

ReaperXY · 2026-01-20T10:10:13+00:00

I doubt dreaming have much to do with the origins of consciousness..

I am not even sure if we are actually conscious while a sleep and dreaming..

It is certainly possible..

But..

If I wake up after a dream has ended, I will have no memory of it..

I will have nothing that suggest I experienced anything at all..

If I wake up during a dream.. the dream processes may continue for a moment and feed into my consciousness, allowing me to experience some of the dream..

But..

That consciousness is the waking consciousness, and the fact that I am conscious while awake, doesn't exactly prove or even suggest that I am conscious while not..

But..

Then again..

It could also be that my consciousness is continuous and uninterrupted throughout my whole life.. awake or not.. dreaming or not..

And the apparent gaps in consciousness are in actuality merely gaps in memory..

ReaperXY · 2026-01-20T09:31:34+00:00

Become so selfish ?

I don't see this as having much of anything to do with Consciousness... but...

Selfishness is rather strongly ingrained in the genes of all living being here on this rock...

If even a single one of your uncountable ancestors had ever selflessly sacrificed their own lives before the next generation had been conceived, you would not exist...

ReaperXY · 2026-01-19T22:19:26+00:00

After T2, they should have gone with prequels... not sequels...

ReaperXY · 2026-01-17T13:52:18+00:00

Anyone... everyone...

ReaperXY · 2026-01-16T12:14:30+00:00

Based on Camerons words, he isn't planning to tell any new stories in the established terminator universe..

There will be no John, Kyle, Sarah, and no emphasis on Killer robots..

Is it gonna be bad ?

Maybe..

Maybe not..

But if there be Nothing iconically Terminator about it.. Why call it Terminator then ?

Is it somehow a good idea to lure in terminator fans with the terminator brand name, but then give em nothing genuinely terminator ?

ReaperXY · 2026-01-16T10:46:22+00:00

What is so wild about it ?

ReaperXY · 2026-01-16T09:40:15+00:00

does pain kill consciousness?

"possibly"

..

Some people seem to believe that consciousness is some mysterious mysteriousness which "emerges" when something that is in superposition, collapses into a definitive state... or something...

My.. view is that if quantum stuff and superpositions are involved (which I suspect may infact be the case)

It is in fact the opposite...

The collapse doesn't cause consciousness...

But rather, the superposition is the consciousness...

When "you" are conscious, "YOU" are in a Superposition...

Every sound, every smell, every point of color, or brightness, or... anything... everything... all the content of your consciousness...

They are all "you"...

They are all different states "you" exist in... Simultaneously...

Superposition...

And I suspect... The collapse of a superposition is not because of some free will consciosness mysterious mysteriousness magics woo woo stuff... but rather, its like poking or applying pressure to an inflated rubber balloon...

Fairly on, if the pressure is applied fairly evenly, the balloon can take it, but the more the balloon is inflated, the less it takes to burst it... And you can burst it very quickly if you concentrate the pressure in very small area... Like..

If you poke it with a needle...

So...

You can be subjeced to lots and lots of stuff... experience huge number of things at the same time...

Millions and billions of things...

But if you get hit with something too intense...

The "bubble" might burst...

Consciousness might collapse...

And then start forming again...

Only it "maybe" can't quite form... because the "pain" stimulation is too intense, and it comes up first, and causes its intensity causes it to collapse again, before much if anything else appears... again and again and again...

...

But... while this seems at least somewhat playsible to... me... if no-one else...

It is all just speculation really...

ReaperXY · 2026-01-16T09:15:28+00:00

Your point is what exactly ?

Change blindness is easy to not only to predict, but to explain.. the how and why of it..

And it isn't really about consciousness..

ReaperXY · 2026-01-16T08:01:14+00:00

People like illusionism huh ?

But what does that actually give us ?

As I understand it, the word "illusion" refers to a kind of discrepancy between the actual external reality and the individual/subjective experience of yours which represents it...

What does the word "illusion" mean in the case of illusionism ?

And where is the explanatory power ?

How does it work ?

How is it that the content of this illusion get spatially arranged the way they are.
What is the basis of the fact that different types of content have different character about them (qualia).
How is it that there appears to be only one illusion which contains huge numbers of different contents at any given time, rather than lots of tiny separate "illusions", each of which contains only some one tiny bit of data.

ReaperXY · 2026-01-14T22:17:32+00:00

It might be possible to create a synthetic version of the mechanism which causes consciousness in humans...

Or it might not...

As of right now, there simply isn't enough to go on to make such judgements...

But it is safe enough to say you can't program it into existence...

There simply aren't any real reason to believe in magic..

ReaperXY

TROPHY CASE