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Showing posts from September, 2014

What Living in a Computer Might Feel Like

What is the relationship between consciousness and sensory input? Consider this: you are on a beach sipping a cocktail while the sun sets over the horizon. There is significant information which may be considered fresh, or renewed, which is being drilled into your perception of the surroundings - the breeze, sight, sound, taste, smell, gravity, balance, etc. The continuous transfer of information into your brain is defining your conscious experience which feels unmistakeably "real". Now consider the exact same scenario on the beach, but as a dream. Your subjective experience may feel quite identical, as long as you don't spontaneously realise within the dream that it's a dream (lucid dreaming). Even then, the sensations simulated - without a doubt, they are simulated because there is no beach, there is no breeze, etc. - you are after all sedated in your bed with your body under paralysis; those sensations still feel pretty convincing, and only upon waking are th