the.com/consciousness
the universe's weirdest party trick: matter waking up to ask why it exists
means The state of being aware of yourself and your surroundings — the subjective experience of having a mind that perceives, thinks, and feels.
from Built in the 17th century from Latin 'conscius,' meaning 'knowing with' or 'sharing knowledge' — itself a fusion of 'con-' (together) and 'scire' (to know). The early sense was almost social: to be 'conscious' of something was to share private knowledge, as conspirators share a secret. The philosopher John Locke is often credited with sharpening it into the inner sense we mean today — the mind knowing its own workings, in on the secret of itself.
- timing lag
- You experience now about 80 milliseconds late
- hard problem
- Why any of this feels like anything stays unsolved
- split brains
- Severed hemispheres can hold two separate wills
- blindsight
- Some blind people dodge obstacles without seeing them
- anesthesia mystery
- We knock it out daily without knowing how