[+]Kromulent0 points2 points2 points
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[–]Kromulent0 points
2 points
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(edited ago)
I used to really struggle with the idea of death, of nonexistence. What got me was the fact that you never know you're dead... so are you just trapped in that last moment forever?
Then I had to have my wisdom teeth removed and I had the kind of anesthesia that knocks you all the way out. Like most people eventually do, I got to experience non-exisitance for a little while. I came away feeling like I totally understood it, but I honestly couldn't explain it to my younger self. It's one of those things that's intuitively obvious but logically impossible.
I will say that whenever I've passed out drunk or stoned, those last moments are pretty unconstrained. All I want to do is lie still and feel my eyes roll back into my head, and I am entirely free to do it.
As for free will, I suppose we'll understand it when we understand what consciousness is. Some people like to say it's just an emergent property of a sufficiently complex network, but I think that that's just restating the problem. What property, and how? It's like saying god created the universe... OK, so who created god? It's just moving the original question back one step.
Terrence McKenna has an interesting comment (I'm paraphrasing from memory):
I don't believe my consciousness originates in my brain any more than I believe that the actors in a television show live inside my TV: the box just isn't big enough.
I don't believe that myself, but I do have to admit that any correct explanation for the origin of consciousness is going to be pretty wild. To paraphrase another half-remembered quote:
If you leave hydrogen alone for long enough, it begins to wonder where it came from.
I think of death as a nothingness. I find it hard to imagine nothing though. Infinite nothingness. Wait, infinite or timeless?
I've had the opportunity to experience general anaesthesia too, but I was really fucked up and don't remember much of the experience clearly. I've read other accounts as well, it's weird losing time like that, like your internal clock gets paused. When I start smoking heavily my sleep is a little like that, one of the nice things about quitting for a while is that I eventually get vivid dreams that I can rememebr again. Also, semi-related, this got me thinking about ganja and time perception and I found some kind of interesting abstracts on it.
All I want to do is lie still
rofl - yes, 100%. Just have reasonable expectations/desires, right? I think my new year resolution next year will be to clean my car. Like, at least once.
Isn't that a fundamental principle of the whole Buddhism/nirvana thing, relinquishing desire?
I like that second quote.
McKenna... was quiet an interesting dude. I'm entirely satisfied that my consciousness is originating in my brain. That's not to say I really understand how or what consciousness is... But I'm pretty certain the meat computer in my head is causing mine... Is it just entirely a product of my genetics and environment? When I make a choice, was it really a choice at all? Or was it just a movement forward on a path that was already predetermined by the wiring in my head and the reality I perceive? I think that it could be and I don't really see autonomy in that existence, but does that even matter?
But then, for all I know, some kind of quantum split happens every time a choice is made and all the infinite realms of possibility are being lived out in parallel realities.
I don't know, I know know fuck all. I'm done thinkin, time to go bliss out.
[–] Kromulent 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago (edited ago)
I used to really struggle with the idea of death, of nonexistence. What got me was the fact that you never know you're dead... so are you just trapped in that last moment forever?
Then I had to have my wisdom teeth removed and I had the kind of anesthesia that knocks you all the way out. Like most people eventually do, I got to experience non-exisitance for a little while. I came away feeling like I totally understood it, but I honestly couldn't explain it to my younger self. It's one of those things that's intuitively obvious but logically impossible.
I will say that whenever I've passed out drunk or stoned, those last moments are pretty unconstrained. All I want to do is lie still and feel my eyes roll back into my head, and I am entirely free to do it.
As for free will, I suppose we'll understand it when we understand what consciousness is. Some people like to say it's just an emergent property of a sufficiently complex network, but I think that that's just restating the problem. What property, and how? It's like saying god created the universe... OK, so who created god? It's just moving the original question back one step.
Terrence McKenna has an interesting comment (I'm paraphrasing from memory):
I don't believe that myself, but I do have to admit that any correct explanation for the origin of consciousness is going to be pretty wild. To paraphrase another half-remembered quote:
[–] BirdLawAttorney ago
I think of death as a nothingness. I find it hard to imagine nothing though. Infinite nothingness. Wait, infinite or timeless?
I've had the opportunity to experience general anaesthesia too, but I was really fucked up and don't remember much of the experience clearly. I've read other accounts as well, it's weird losing time like that, like your internal clock gets paused. When I start smoking heavily my sleep is a little like that, one of the nice things about quitting for a while is that I eventually get vivid dreams that I can rememebr again. Also, semi-related, this got me thinking about ganja and time perception and I found some kind of interesting abstracts on it.
rofl - yes, 100%. Just have reasonable expectations/desires, right? I think my new year resolution next year will be to clean my car. Like, at least once.
Isn't that a fundamental principle of the whole Buddhism/nirvana thing, relinquishing desire?
I like that second quote.
McKenna... was quiet an interesting dude. I'm entirely satisfied that my consciousness is originating in my brain. That's not to say I really understand how or what consciousness is... But I'm pretty certain the meat computer in my head is causing mine... Is it just entirely a product of my genetics and environment? When I make a choice, was it really a choice at all? Or was it just a movement forward on a path that was already predetermined by the wiring in my head and the reality I perceive? I think that it could be and I don't really see autonomy in that existence, but does that even matter?
But then, for all I know, some kind of quantum split happens every time a choice is made and all the infinite realms of possibility are being lived out in parallel realities.
I don't know, I know know fuck all. I'm done thinkin, time to go bliss out.