2003.02.12
Consciousness is a smaller part of our mental life than we are conscious of, because we cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of. How simple that is to say; how difficult to appreciate! It is like asking a flashlight in a dark room to search around for something that does not have any light shining upon it. The flashlight, since there is a light in any direction it turns, would have to conclude that there is light everywhere. And so consciousness can seem to pervade all mentality when actually it does not.The book was quoted in "The User Illusion" which I just finished. I don't know if I buy into Jayne's theory, that consciousness/the sense of "I" as we know it didn't show up until a few thousand years ago...or at least not some extensions of that idea, how that would have changed people's view of themselves, and that maybe "consciousness" disappeared (at least in Europe) for most of the dark ages and came back around the time of the Renaissance...
Flash of the Movement
BoingBoing pointed to this Flash site that is a true triumph of style over substance.
Report to Home of the Moment
So, kind of like yesterday, a MetaFilter conversation trying to figure out the authenticity of this report, supposedly from Davos. It seems a stretch that the journalist it's supposedly from would take this kind of tone and make so many mistakes, but it is supposed to be a casual note. In any case, it's an exploration of the "just what level of deep economic doodoo are we in" dilemma. I wonder what the hell I should be doing from a preparation standpoint?
Slashdot Funny of the Moment
> I am repeatedly surprised by the amount of spam
> out there that does not contain any way
> to contact the spammer. How do they expect to
> make money if there is no way to contact them?
Volume!