My current train of thought is that consciousness is not inhabited within the physical vehicle of the brain or body however it is beyond any reasonable doubt that the brain is some kind of mechanistic vehicle that conduits consciousness. Evidence shows if certain networks of the brain are damaged or destroyed then it follows a person is, at least externally and objectively (as subjective conscious experience other than ones own cannot be proven) diminished. We also know other neural networks in the gut and heart contribute the living experience of a conscious entity by physical mechanisms and that if action potentials cease in a neural network and there is no more activity a conscious entity ceases to be in any currently measurable sense. So I formulate my first point that synapses, neural networks and the brain do affect who one is and consciousness in some way even if largely misunderstood.
My second notion is that these neural networks form over time as an organism develops. ** side thought i just had perhaps all matter is conscious but a certain set of conditions in a network need to be met for that to be actualised*** After all we all start as gametes and im assuming are now entities with a multitude more of matter assimilated into the coding of our DNA and with more of certain quantities, weight, volume, charge.
As we develop our neural networks form according to several factors:
a) The way our currently active DNA codes for.
b) according to our environment and experiences.
c) (a subset of b) according to DNA code switched on or off due to experiences or environment.
So two assertions. The way neural networks operate affects conscious experience and that experience will constitute what reality is for us (as anecdotally anyone who has experienced drugs may attest to) and Neural networks form.
Some additional meaning to bits of language that might help me explain the next bit: DNA works to proliferate expressions of itself conducive to its proliferation and growth, this applies to physical phenotypes as much as it does those of the psyche of an organism e.g. being focused on fractal mathematics and such versus being focused on getting by, the task at hand, hunting and fucking - one is better suited to survival, one is arguably truer to reality is as the universe is just mathematical geometry running itself and the sea a mountain or a galaxy does not care about you eating or fucking or finding firewood . Life works to combat Entropy.
Our Neural networks form while we are young; when we are placed in school first. Here we are taught that adults are different conscious entities to ourselves. They know something we do not and reality makes sense to them; they have got it figured and know better. We are taught to sit down behind a desk, listen to an authority figure, we are taught to have regimented breaks, eat when told to, how to form social groups, what social hierarchy should be based upon, how to move to the chime of a bell, that certain behaviours expressions and feelings deserve chastisement. We are taught that there is a certainty to life and a way of things and that there is comfort and "right-ness" in being that.
Our neural networks form rigid connections in our brain based around the repetitions of these behaviours engraining them in our experience so they may be transposed and ruminated in other contexts so as they may become us.
As an academic idea this means one thing but to learn and embody that who you thought you were, your feelings of pleasure and pain everything real to you was just a byproduct of that particular vehicle for your consciousness being your brain is a difficult concept.
Let me explain another idea; The only reality that exists is subjective. We can calibrate each others subjective experiences with things like language or science for example we can both decide on a sound we can make with our face to associate with a certain meaning to convey data, we can both divide 3d space into metres and both agree that if we multiply the speed of an object by the time it takes to travel a distance we get a value for that distance in a set of numbers where we have agreed to use "0" as a reference point and split at regular intervals with different symbols and noises we use to represent data - A very clever system when broken down.
However we can never know if anothers experience is truly the same. the easiest way to conceptualise this is with the words we use for colour for example we both use the noise red to calibrate our visual colour senses as all common objects of the same colour will be the same in each of our subjective realities we can agree upon this. However whats to say that what i see as green isnt your red and vice versa, there is no way of knowing.
This shows that this physical realm of reality which we occupy is actually a simulation by consciousness using our brain and senses. Light hits your eye, it travels down your optical nerve you generate an image, you filter a lot out, you call on memories of previous data and the image presented to "you" consciousness may not even reflect reality but it has been simulated by your hardware, the same for every other sense. In a way everbody is schisophrenic as youre never really talking to someone else, just interpreting sound data, classing it as coming from this body your visually sensing of another person with a name who you will have more data on in memory to interpret inflection or references in the sound etc and youre then taking all of that and presinting it as an experience of reality (im saying you but i mean the meat organs) to consciousness the observer. Reality is a simulation - no not in that sense of the geometric mathematical computer; though it probably is. but your experience what you think this physical world is etc is just being simulated by your meat organs and presented to you the observer. but this is a crazy concept which ive probably butchered and deserves its own book!
So our neural networks are formed in schools and institutes and this physically changes what reality is or ever can be to us versus what it might have been. These weird behaviours are then reinforced by high school and University which is even stranger as students are integrated into consumption and cities whilst still turning up to sit down to the chime of a bell or based on how far a clock hand has spun around a circle defining imaginary blocks of time and this becomes reality for people after which they get a job which is much the same. a job they have been conditioned for their whole lives.
It is my belief most people in the western world are unhappy, confused and unfulfilled looking for connection. Life is this crazy thing and they dont understand why they have to turn up everyday to sit in a brick cube behind a wooden rectangle and illuminated electrical rectangle waiting for their lunch hour or weekend and all just to afford a brick cube of their own to sit in and watch an electrical box none of which makes them happy then to make children passing on their dna and making sure their child goes to school all day etc etc repeating the cycle.
Most people are unfulfilled by living this way, angry, tense, confused. but they cannot see past it and cannot imagine or would snigger at the suggestion of living another way.
I thought I had a point when I started writing this but by the end id just like to know peoples thoughts on what the hell i just wrote?
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