This short text describes the idea of a Waker—a new way of experiencing reality / consciousness / subjectivity / mode of existence. Sadly, it cannot be attained without advanced uploading technology, that is one which allows far-fetched manipulation of mind. Despite that, the author doesn’t find it premature to start planning a retirement as a posthuman.
A Waker is based on the experience of waking up from a dream—slowly we realize unreality of world we just were in, we realize discrepancies between dreamscape and “the real world”, like that we no longer attend high school, one of our grandparents has had passed away few years ago, we work at a different place, etc. Despite the fact the world we wake up in is new and different, we quickly remember who we are, what we do, who are our friends, how does that world look like and in few seconds we have a perfect knowledge of that world and find it a real world, place, we have been living in since our birth. Meanwhile, dream world becomes a weird story and we typically feel some kind of a sentiment for it. Sometimes we’re glad to escape that reality, sometimes we’re sad—nevertheless we mostly treat it as something of little importance. Not a real world we lost forever, but rather a silly, made-up world.
A Waker’s subjective experience would differ from ours in that way, she would always have the choice of waking up from current reality. As she would do that, she would find herself in a bed, or a chair, or laying on the grass, just having woken up. She would remember the world, she was just in, probably better then we usually remember our dream, nevertheless she would see it as a dream—she wouldn’t feel strong connection to that reality. In the same time, she would start “remembering” the world she just woken up in. Somehow different then in our case, this would be a world she never had actually lived in, however she would acquire full knowledge of it and a sense of having spent all her life in that world. Despite all that, she would have full awareness of her being a Waker. She would find connection to the world she lives in different then we do and at first glance somehow paradoxical. She would feel how real it is, she would find it more real then any of the “dreams” she had, she would have investment in life goals, relationships with other people, she’ll be capable of real love. And yet, she will be fully able to wake up and enter new world, where her life goals and relationships might be replaced by ones that feel exactly as real and important. There is an air of openness and ease of giving away all you know, completely alien to us, early XXI century people.
Worlds in which Waker would wake up, would have the level of discrepancies similar to those of our dreams. Most of the people would stay in place, time and Waker’s age would be quite similar. She would be able to sleep and dream regular dreams, after which she will wake back in the same world she fell asleep in. What is important is that a Waker cannot get back to a dreamworld. She can only move forward, same as we do and unlike the consciousnesses in Hub Realities - posthumans who can chose the reality they live in.
I hope you enjoyed it and some of you would decide to fork into Waker mode of existence, when the posthumanism hits. I’d be very glad, if anyone have other ideas for novel subjectivities and would be willing to share in comments.
The Waker—new mode of existence
This short text describes the idea of a Waker—a new way of experiencing reality / consciousness / subjectivity / mode of existence. Sadly, it cannot be attained without advanced uploading technology, that is one which allows far-fetched manipulation of mind. Despite that, the author doesn’t find it premature to start planning a retirement as a posthuman.
A Waker is based on the experience of waking up from a dream—slowly we realize unreality of world we just were in, we realize discrepancies between dreamscape and “the real world”, like that we no longer attend high school, one of our grandparents has had passed away few years ago, we work at a different place, etc. Despite the fact the world we wake up in is new and different, we quickly remember who we are, what we do, who are our friends, how does that world look like and in few seconds we have a perfect knowledge of that world and find it a real world, place, we have been living in since our birth. Meanwhile, dream world becomes a weird story and we typically feel some kind of a sentiment for it. Sometimes we’re glad to escape that reality, sometimes we’re sad—nevertheless we mostly treat it as something of little importance. Not a real world we lost forever, but rather a silly, made-up world.
A Waker’s subjective experience would differ from ours in that way, she would always have the choice of waking up from current reality. As she would do that, she would find herself in a bed, or a chair, or laying on the grass, just having woken up. She would remember the world, she was just in, probably better then we usually remember our dream, nevertheless she would see it as a dream—she wouldn’t feel strong connection to that reality. In the same time, she would start “remembering” the world she just woken up in. Somehow different then in our case, this would be a world she never had actually lived in, however she would acquire full knowledge of it and a sense of having spent all her life in that world. Despite all that, she would have full awareness of her being a Waker. She would find connection to the world she lives in different then we do and at first glance somehow paradoxical. She would feel how real it is, she would find it more real then any of the “dreams” she had, she would have investment in life goals, relationships with other people, she’ll be capable of real love. And yet, she will be fully able to wake up and enter new world, where her life goals and relationships might be replaced by ones that feel exactly as real and important. There is an air of openness and ease of giving away all you know, completely alien to us, early XXI century people.
Worlds in which Waker would wake up, would have the level of discrepancies similar to those of our dreams. Most of the people would stay in place, time and Waker’s age would be quite similar. She would be able to sleep and dream regular dreams, after which she will wake back in the same world she fell asleep in. What is important is that a Waker cannot get back to a dreamworld. She can only move forward, same as we do and unlike the consciousnesses in Hub Realities - posthumans who can chose the reality they live in.
I hope you enjoyed it and some of you would decide to fork into Waker mode of existence, when the posthumanism hits. I’d be very glad, if anyone have other ideas for novel subjectivities and would be willing to share in comments.
Yawn, it’s been a long day—time to Wake up.