I actually think “consciousness” as we know it may very well be a construct, a model if you will. It’s a narrative we build – which doesn’t mean it’s not real, it’s just not “real” in a necessarily physical, tangible sense.
I relate it to the sweeping second hand on a mechanical watch. One thing that defines a mechanical watch is how the second hand doesn’t “tick” in the way a quartz crystal-timed watch’s second hand does. It smoothly sweeps around the 360 degrees, once per second.
Or does it? Look closely, and you’ll see that it actually is ticking, just at a much higher frequency than that of a quartz watch. It creates the illusion of a smooth sweep, but really, it’s just a continuum of separate moments.
In this way, I feel that our brains have a “clock speed.” There is only so much processing going on per second. We like to tell ourselves that this thing called “us” exists in a continuous fashion, and that it starts with birth and ends with death. The funny thing is, if you really concentrate on what you mean when you think of the “self,” you realize that this thing, the perceiver, goes into all sorts of modes on a regular basis where it essentially ceases to exist, or at least ceases to exist in a fashion anything close to what we consider “normal consciousness.”
Where do “you” go when you fall asleep? Zone out? Go under during anesthesia? That thing that is “you” is, frankly, gone at that point. Or at least – certainly not existing in the fashion that most people take for granted.
I actually began to think about these things reading about AI, the singularity and the creation of mechanical brains, and other interesting sci-fi ideas, even the transporters on Star Trek. Is that really “you” on the other side, or a very good copy? If you could clone your mind and put it in a machine, and then the original “you” died, would that new thing be you? Or simply a very very good facsimile, with all of your memories and response patterns?
And then I realized – doesn’t this actually play out constantly in our lives, every morning when we awake? When I got my wisdom teeth pulled out? Those countless times per day when I essentially drift off?
Obviously Eastern philosophies, as well as Western mystical traditions, begin to address these conundrums. However, I wish more people took the time to consider such things.
