What am I?

[Pasi Nurminen]

Why did this consciousness I refer to as myself manifest itself in such a way as that I would achieve sentience through it? Am I just some kind of machine, operating from a distance without being truly aware of it? How is it that I became the mental vessel through which this body manages to sustain its physical existence? I reach out and I feel the can of Coke in front of me, I inhale my cigarette, but how is it that my consciousness feels these things, being separate as it seems to be from the body that it inhabits? How did I inhabit this body, and how is it that I'm not aware of things that everyone else feels? How do I not intuitively know what everyone else seems to think, and why does it seem that everyone else is something else, as if just pieces of my environment that I am to react to? Why am I me?

One last question: why am I still awake at 4 am despite the fact that I have to be up at 8?

 

[nonconformist]

What am I?

You're an emo dude. Now do us all a favour and slit your wrists.

 

[BEHIND_THE_MASK]

Why did this consciousness I refer to as myself manifest itself in such a way as that I would achieve sentience through it? Am I just some kind of machine, operating from a distance without being truly aware of it? How is it that I became the mental vessel through which this body manages to sustain its physical existence? I reach out and I feel the can of Coke in front of me, I inhale my cigarette, but how is it that my consciousness feels these things, being separate as it seems to be from the body that it inhabits? How did I inhabit this body, and how is it that I'm not aware of things that everyone else feels? How do I not intuitively know what everyone else seems to think, and why does it seem that everyone else is something else, as if just pieces of my environment that I am to react to? Why am I me?

One last question: why am I still awake at 4 am despite the fact that I have to be up at 8?

Im gonna skip the first question...

As for the last one. Perhaps you told yourself that at 3 AM if you went to bed you'd never get to sleep and wake up at 8, so you decided to stay up all night and just take the day in its full despite being tired...

But thats just my guess.

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

You're an emo dude. Now do us all a favour and slit your wrists.

No, you troll, I'm not. I'm trying to understand the human psyche.

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

Im gonna skip the first question...

As for the last one. Perhaps you told yourself that at 3 AM if you went to bed you'd never get to sleep and wake up at 8, so you decided to stay up all night and just take the day in its full despite being tired...

But thats just my guess.

Yeah, that's exactly it.

 

[Tycoon101]

You are a human. You are finally realising that you have a mind. Congratulations.

 

[GoodGame]

^^^^^

Is that an accredited, degree program?

 

[aneeshm]

Why did this consciousness I refer to as myself manifest itself in such a way as that I would achieve sentience through it? Am I just some kind of machine, operating from a distance without being truly aware of it? How is it that I became the mental vessel through which this body manages to sustain its physical existence? I reach out and I feel the can of Coke in front of me, I inhale my cigarette, but how is it that my consciousness feels these things, being separate as it seems to be from the body that it inhabits? How did I inhabit this body, and how is it that I'm not aware of things that everyone else feels? How do I not intuitively know what everyone else seems to think, and why does it seem that everyone else is something else, as if just pieces of my environment that I am to react to? Why am I me?

One last question: why am I still awake at 4 am despite the fact that I have to be up at 8?

Very nice questions. For a varied range of answers to them, pick up the book "Indian Philosophy, Volume Two", by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, for the orthodox Hindu view, and Volume One for the Buddhist and Jain views (among others).

 

[useless]

your a human being. thats what you are. and no amount of religious bullscrap or books can convince me other wise

 

[C~G]

Your brain as machinery ultimately needs supervisor and for some reason it has created this illusion of self during the millions of years of evolution to be able to cope with all the functions it has to be able to operate.

The idea of you as separate entity is just one click among many other clicks.

Get over it.

(And additionally as you are tired people often get this feeling their consciousness is playing tricks on them. The brain activity somehow boggles down and you are able to percept and experience more clearly the fragmented nature of your consciousness. Or your brain expericiences and interprets it as some kind of body/mind-dilemma if you have trouble understand what I meant with "you")

 

[brennan]

Another bloody dualist.

Your consciousness is an emergent property of the biological machinery of you brain. It is a side effect of a complex physical structure.

Need proof? Go have a few drinks, note how much those mere molecules affect your consciousness...

 

[C~G]

Your consciousness is an emergent property of the biological machinery of you brain. It is a side effect of a complex physical structure.

Personally I usually try to put more weight saying it's "re-emerging" so people really understand that it pulls out these images of self by itself to itself. Basically it's like backup image of computer data which moment by moment gets updated and this shift is noticed which causes us our brain to notice the shift and difference between the old and new image. OK, this is getting bit technical now.

And I hate dualists too. Sometimes little bit less or more than physicalist though.

 

[Kennigit]

If you want to continue your conciousness, stop smoking and try getting good nights of rest (probably a 1 time thing for you, but if it happens a lot then change it).

 

[Elrohir]

Why did this consciousness I refer to as myself manifest itself in such a way as that I would achieve sentience through it?

I would say you are conscious because God gave you a soul, and that's what makes you different from things of wholly physical structure. But no, I can't prove that scientifically. It's called faith.

Am I just some kind of machine, operating from a distance without being truly aware of it?

Aren't you aware of your surroundings now?

How is it that I became the mental vessel through which this body manages to sustain its physical existence?

Again, I'd say it's because you have a non-physical soul which is your actual consciousness bound to your body in some way. Or I suppose your consciousness could be an illusion caused by complex biochemical processes in your brain. But that's rather depressing and pointless, so unless you want to become a nihilist, I'd stay away from that line of thought.

 

[aneeshm]

Another bloody dualist.

I'm a non-dualist, but I take the opposite position as you (that the world is a non-created veil over consciousness).

 

[C~G]

Again, I'd say it's because you have a non-physical soul which is your actual consciousness bound to your body in some way. Or I suppose your consciousness could be an illusion caused by complex biochemical processes in your brain. But that's rather depressing and pointless, so unless you want to become a nihilist, I'd stay away from that line of thought.

It doesn't matter even if it is "illusion caused by complex biochemical processess in your brain" when it comes to faith.

You should acknowledge Elrohir that above doesn't shut away the possibility of eternal soul. That's why I like it since I can easily adjust my mind to communicate with people who have faith. It doesn't disturb as long as we make sure we don't fall into any kind of traps of dualism/monism.

You could easily believe that the way we experience our own consciousness is an illusion but that there's also spiritual aspect in our being.

Of course, personally as I lack such faith I don't believe so but don't think that eternal soul is only possible if that above description is untrue.
They can go well hand in hand and I suspect some others in this forum think the same.

 

[Jawz II]

Backed up.

You need to get some, ASAP.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Am I just some kind of machine, operating from a distance without being truly aware of it?

The part of you thats a machine isnt you. No more than a car is you when you drive one.

How is it that I became the mental vessel through which this body manages to sustain its physical existence?

A better question I think is "How did this body become the physical vessel for the Mind that sustains it?" Answer: I dont know.

I reach out and I feel the can of Coke in front of me, I inhale my cigarette, but how is it that my consciousness feels these things, being separate as it seems to be from the body that it inhabits?

Your Consciousness is aware of those sensations, but thats not the same as saying that its feeling them.

How did I inhabit this body, and how is it that I'm not aware of things that everyone else feels?

Because you still dont know what you feel.

How do I not intuitively know what everyone else seems to think,

Because you still dont know what you think.

and why does it seem that everyone else is something else, as if just pieces of my environment that I am to react to?

Because thats how you were taught to view the world.

Why am I me?

Who do you think you are?

 

[Narz]

You're a divine expression of the unity of... ah shoot, I suck at that hippie stuff

You're an animal with consciousness. It's hard to judge what to do with that as we're still such a young species and we have no frame of reference (no other conscious animals to compare ourselves to).

 

[Winner]

Well, I have a good idea what are you, but I can't tell you since I don't want to get banned this week