I feel a sense of impossibility that “anything could exist at all”.
I feel a sense of impossibility when I contemplate the recursive nature of perceiving myself perceiving thoughts.
I feel a sense of impossibility about something unspeakable that comes before and is outside anything else.
How are we sure we mean the same thing by the word consciousness though? All I can tell for sure is that ppl think consciousness is “impossible” (cus they try to invent quantum phlogiston to explain it), and something about consciousness engendering moral worth.
I don’t think I’d have less moral worth if I couldn’t recognize myself in a mirror. I still have moral worth when I’m not introspecting.
I get the sense of impossibility but I get it about lots of things, e.g. Greg Egan’s dust from permutation city.
I feel like maybe I’m missing something other people are experiencing here, but maybe not.
This is an intriguing comment, but it might take time and care to determine what it is that you are talking about. For example, the “sense of impossibility” that you “get… about lots of things”: what kind of sense of impossibility is it? Do these things feel logically impossible per se? Do they feel impossible because they contradict other things that you believe are true? Do you draw the conclusion that the impossible-seeming things genuinely cannot exist or (in the case of self-perception?) genuinely do not exist, despite appearances?
Yes, same qualia as looking at an Escher staircase IRL but feels more fundamental.
Do they feel impossible because they contradict other things that you believe are true?
No. I can’t break down why they feel impossible.
Do you draw the conclusion that the impossible-seeming things genuinely cannot exist or (in the case of self-perception?) genuinely do not exist, despite appearances?
Kinda but I can’t maintain that because milliseconds later I perceive the “impossible” qualia again.
Free will used to feel impossible but now that I understand free will as related to e.g. the 5-and-10 problem it’s more… manipulable somehow.
I feel a sense of impossibility that “anything could exist at all”.
I feel a sense of impossibility when I contemplate the recursive nature of perceiving myself perceiving thoughts.
I feel a sense of impossibility about something unspeakable that comes before and is outside anything else.
How are we sure we mean the same thing by the word consciousness though? All I can tell for sure is that ppl think consciousness is “impossible” (cus they try to invent quantum phlogiston to explain it), and something about consciousness engendering moral worth.
I don’t think I’d have less moral worth if I couldn’t recognize myself in a mirror. I still have moral worth when I’m not introspecting.
I get the sense of impossibility but I get it about lots of things, e.g. Greg Egan’s dust from permutation city.
I feel like maybe I’m missing something other people are experiencing here, but maybe not.
This is an intriguing comment, but it might take time and care to determine what it is that you are talking about. For example, the “sense of impossibility” that you “get… about lots of things”: what kind of sense of impossibility is it? Do these things feel logically impossible per se? Do they feel impossible because they contradict other things that you believe are true? Do you draw the conclusion that the impossible-seeming things genuinely cannot exist or (in the case of self-perception?) genuinely do not exist, despite appearances?
Yes, same qualia as looking at an Escher staircase IRL but feels more fundamental.
No. I can’t break down why they feel impossible.
Kinda but I can’t maintain that because milliseconds later I perceive the “impossible” qualia again.
Free will used to feel impossible but now that I understand free will as related to e.g. the 5-and-10 problem it’s more… manipulable somehow.