https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwM1Nh7rerU
Giant chocolate rocks filled with crystallized sugar. Takes 6 months to create!
Giant chocolate rocks filled with crystallized sugar. Takes 6 months to create!
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Show posts MenuQuote from: Cramulus on March 22, 2017, 02:09:46 AMQuote from: doudou on March 21, 2017, 11:32:44 PM
Ok, so I really like the mindfulness technique of becoming aware of your own breathing.
Often when I try to be mindful, I am just reminded of my chronic pain. @_@.
That's really interesting - you're the second person I've talked to today who's mentioned how mindfulness isn't necessarily pleasant for them. I was unaware until today that many people intentionally avoid it! But I can see how pain or anxiety or depression would make you not want to be here/now.Quote
It's kind of a new insight that I don't want to do things because my body hurts. Kind of. *takes an advil*
That sounds really crappy, I'm sorry.
Recognizing that your body's needs play such a strong role in your behavior / awareness, does that change anything?
If you recognize that fact at the moment of decision, do you think you'd make a different decision?
Quote from: Cramulus on March 19, 2017, 06:41:40 PMQuote from: doudou on March 19, 2017, 05:46:34 AM
Is there a part of the mind that can become conscious? If so, am I only partly conscious over time or am I only conscious 5% but continuously?
If 95% of the time is spent jerking off in the basement, then what does it mean to be conscious that 5% of the time? Does it mean a random moment of clarity or does it mean I am 95% automatic and 5% connected with something that is beyond myself that makes me self-aware?
Learning is a conscious process. You can't learn automatically, it takes conscious effort to absorb and integrate information. When you first learned to drive a car, you were really mindful. Every action you took taught you a little bit. Now, years later, you get it. So you don't need the lazy conscious mind to drive. You can just run the mental routine you built.
And if we zoom out, a lot of our life is spent in that routine, in those heuristics. If we don't actively think about it, we don't get a lot of time to reflect on those heuristics, or the process we used to arrive at them.
Quote from: Cramulus on March 19, 2017, 06:41:40 PMQuote from: doudou on March 19, 2017, 05:46:34 AM
Am I just one piece of a chain reaction? Am I on autopilot and consciousness is just whatever is other adding itself into my equation?
Marshall McLuhan says we're the sex organs of the machine world.
The Art of Memetics says we're the sex organs of the meme world.
I think the way out of the chain is Agency. And I don't think you really have Agency if you're just making mechanical decisions.
And to expand it again, yes, most decisions are mechanical. Like a character in the Sims, we always take whatever action we perceive will give us best rewards. We continue to exhibit that behavior until a competing one gives us better feels. (behaviorists call that 'melioration') When that calculus is simple, our behavior is predictable.
If you can make decisions about your automatic processes, you might be in the conscious part of the self.
It's really hard to perform this reflection, this self-consciousness, this Self-Remembering, while the habitual mind is buzzing. When you're emotional, it's really hard to step outside of it and make an independent decision.
Usually, when we have that 5% moment of self-remembering, it only lasts for that moment, and then it's over.
Part of what I want to discover is how to increase consciousness along a few different dimensions: frequency, length, depth.
Quote from: Cramulus on March 17, 2017, 06:13:37 PM
I hate to break it to you, but you're not conscious. You're just running a program. Your habitual mind is driving your meat machine. Your reactions are mechanical. You are running on autopilot. You are a script in human form.
There's a part of your mind which can become conscious, but it's too much work for you. It might open an eye for a moment, learn something, make a decision, but then it goes back to sleep. The autopilot is in charge.
Your mind is a mansion. But you? You spend 95% of your life jerking off in the basement. You didn't even know there was an attic. Can you even find the way there?