For me, it’s the simple memories of playing Quake 3 Arena on Friday nights after school. Crush soda in my cup. A fresh bagel in my hand. Freedom from the responsibilities of homework until Sunday night. I only had the one game so I’d spend the evening exploring different mods, trying to teach myself how to make levels (maps), and of course just frag noobs online until my eyes hurt. I’d stay up super late and when I’d wake up I literally couldn’t be more excited to do it all over again. It was glorious.

Semi-related anecdote…

During the debates my wife made a joke that Biden is so old he’s not even a Boomer. We then gave each other a look and pulled out our phones to check. Turns out it’s true, he is from the “Silent Generation”.

These are some heavy accusations for Gabe

Isn’t it funny how much of an impact film and video games can have on us?

I now reside in the US, but I also have tons of nostalgia from the early 90s American movies even though I wasn’t here at the time.

Home Alone 2 for me! There is something super cozy about the snowy New York City setting. Especially when I was younger I really appreciated those vibes.

This game rocks! The first game holds such a special place in my heart so understandably I was both excited and a little nervous to get my hands on the second. Thankfully we have a Portal 2 situation happening here. They took all of the best parts of the first game (mind-bending puzzles, thought provoking philosophical ideas, beautiful music) and expanded on it all without losing any of the core identity.

I rarely buy games upon release but gladly purchased this one to support these guys.

Yes, this is what the + and - are for! One could be LGBTQ-Blacks for example.

I will say that you have to be really careful with your order of operations if you happen to be racist against two or more minorities though.

For instance, LGBTQ(-Muslims)(-Jews) would imply that you support both Muslims and Jews due to the rules of multiplication. Since most racists are not good at math it is recommended for you to only target one minority as the primary object of your hate whenever possible.

Give up on life. Hope for reincarnation so that I can do better the next go-around.

Could these be the negative and positive thoughts within ourselves?

Thank you so much for the explanation!

I’m going to sound like a total idiot but if our universe was at the center of a ginormous sphere could that give an illusion that every point in space was moving away from another when in fact we could all be falling (getting pulled by gravity) toward whatever edge of the sphere we are closest to?

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What was trying to say is that I believe that neutrons are experiencing being neutrons, protons are experiencing being protons, electrons are experiencing being electrons, etc. Meanwhile an atom that contains all of the above is a more complex system and thus has a higher level of consciousness. Again I don’t equate consciousness with intelligence but more of an elementary state of awareness that allows these entities to perform their function.

This is really hard for me to articulate because I’m coming at this from a philosophical point of view and not a scientific one!

I love the way you’ve articulated the n+1 level of complexity! As if the information that we consume alters the complexity of our own consciousness.

These cells are able to solve simple puzzles and behave differently as individuals as compared to groups too.

A hair cell that has had no prior exposure to a brand new environment is able to sense the change and adapt itself. To me this is indicative of an elementary consciousness.

I am purely panpsychist. My intuition says that literally everything in this universe has a bit of consciousness in it. An atom has a bit, a cell has a few bits, a human brain has trillions of bits.

As an analogy, in a vivid dream “you” may be holding an apple, but in the end both you and that apple are made of dream-stuff. I believe that is the case for reality as well.

I commented this elsewhere but please take a look at a few minutes of this video. Just because we do not understand the mechanism does not mean that it doesn’t exist.

A renowned biologist Michael Levin took some basic skin cells from a frog embryo and separated them from the rest of the organism. Astonishingly these “skin” cells rebooted themselves and converted into a new type of organism that is able to solve simple mazes, and demonstrate individual and group behaviors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3lsYlod5OU&t=389s

I think consciousness is all about experience. Neither the neuron, nor you, Ron (I assume your name is Ron for the pun), has the full context. However who has the more complete conscious experience? You are able to touch, smell, see, hear and taste. A neuron is not. Who is to say there aren’t other senses in the higher consciousness that are beyond your comprehension, Ron?

I’m not sure why you’re getting downvoted. I think that the scientific method is invaluable. I also think that it will never be complete because it is mostly quantitative while consciousness is qualitative (qualia are defined as instances of subjective, conscious experience).

For as long as science keeps subjective experience out of the equation (which by definition it kinda has to) then I also don’t think there will ever be a theory of everything.

As to your thesis, there are not infinite levels of “life” below us, right? At some point, the mechanisms at play are purely chemical interactions.

I do not believe that are are infinite levels of “life” below us or above, but I do believe there are infinite levels of consciousness. But my definition of consciousness is not restricted to life. I do not equate consciousness with “intelligence” or life. I think consciousness is a fundamental property of every little thing in our universe. I believe that higher levels of consciousness arise due to higher levels of systemic complexity. This definition is more intuitive to me as compared to the modern definition where conscious life develops on earth from essentially nothing that is itself “alive”.

As an aside, I don’t know that I’d place the subconscious below consciousness in the foundational way you built. I have wondered whether what we’ve thought of as the subconcious is merely the manifestation of right hemisphere expressing itself

This is a fascinating idea! Thank you for sharing and I’ll be sure to read more about this.

An interesting point is that no level below consciousness does science. No organ (besides the brain), no cell, no DNA strand, ponders the the question you pose.

I would argue that all levels below us do science, at our meta level we simply have ability to observe and describe the science that they do. Sure our cells almost definitely do not have the capacity ponder the question that I raised. But how do you know they don’t have other ways to express their agency? A renown biologist Michael Levin took some basic skin cells from a frog embryo and separated them from the rest of the organism. Astonishingly these “skin” cells rebooted themselves and converted into a new type of organism that is able to solve simple mazes, and demonstrate individual and group behaviors. Source: https://youtu.be/p3lsYlod5OU?si=t2-mBbwNWTSX2Lp8&t=389