This concept at the end reminds me quite a bit of the "Memespace Egregores" talked about over on the Substack "Handwaving Freakoutery". The idea that ideas can be treated as their own organisms, complete with reproduction and competition selection. Ideas can literally ride us into battle, and wage war with other ideas, using our bodies, and weapons forged with the help of other idea parasites.
It reminds of Parmenides idea of 'Way of Truth' vs 'Way of Opinion'. He describes the Way of Truth as the real world, absolute and timeless, where everything is known and happening at the same time. This Way of Truth is unfortunately forever inaccessible to us, as we are trapped in the Way of Opinion. This Way of Opinion is the subjective, time-framed experience of world. It is constructed by the social hive and the environment we live in. This makes a distinction between the divine self and the mortal self (very popular theme at the time) but it does not make a distinction between the physical and the consciousness.
To do this, I personally like to use the Way of the Word. Whenever we think about anything using words, we *must* construct the universe in our mind in the Way of the Word. Also, because consciousness is an agent of the Word, it stems from the Way of Word. Everything we think is forever a subject in the Way of Word.
Do we experience the real world, or are we just experiencing a second-hand result of it? I believe we do experience it, however not in the Way of the Word. We experience it directly, instantaneously, at all times through Sensations. Feelings senses and actions are how we experience the real world. Whenever we start thinking consciously about those sensations, we summon the Way of the Word to take into its gaze the infinitely complex series of input that storm us on every instant, so we can reason about it.
I don't agree that the Way of the Word has any control over the real us. It can help us see and measure differently what is good for us, but it remains an abstraction. Consciousness is but a tool we use, and like all tools, it must be shaped and used by something else.
In the case of the feral child, its mind has not been shaped to form consciousness in the Way of the Word. It was shaped by its environment in order to better survive it. We can still interact with the feral child by means of the real world, the same we do with animals: sensations, empathy and action.
There are a lot of interesting ideas that are coming out of modern neuroscience as well. A self-propagating information system that evolved alongside the physical homo sapiens is not that far fetched.
Thank you for such a thoughtful comment :) I really love the wording of "self-propagating information system," do you mind if I borrow it in the future?
This concept at the end reminds me quite a bit of the "Memespace Egregores" talked about over on the Substack "Handwaving Freakoutery". The idea that ideas can be treated as their own organisms, complete with reproduction and competition selection. Ideas can literally ride us into battle, and wage war with other ideas, using our bodies, and weapons forged with the help of other idea parasites.
Do you have a link to a post in particular that you really liked from them on the subject?
This is the post where he originally defines the concept: https://hwfo.substack.com/p/memespace-egregores-and-google-maps
There's newer posts on it that apply it to current situations.
Wow! It's cool to see convergent thought happening in real time! Thank you so much for introducing me :D
I love the biological metaphor.
It reminds of Parmenides idea of 'Way of Truth' vs 'Way of Opinion'. He describes the Way of Truth as the real world, absolute and timeless, where everything is known and happening at the same time. This Way of Truth is unfortunately forever inaccessible to us, as we are trapped in the Way of Opinion. This Way of Opinion is the subjective, time-framed experience of world. It is constructed by the social hive and the environment we live in. This makes a distinction between the divine self and the mortal self (very popular theme at the time) but it does not make a distinction between the physical and the consciousness.
To do this, I personally like to use the Way of the Word. Whenever we think about anything using words, we *must* construct the universe in our mind in the Way of the Word. Also, because consciousness is an agent of the Word, it stems from the Way of Word. Everything we think is forever a subject in the Way of Word.
Do we experience the real world, or are we just experiencing a second-hand result of it? I believe we do experience it, however not in the Way of the Word. We experience it directly, instantaneously, at all times through Sensations. Feelings senses and actions are how we experience the real world. Whenever we start thinking consciously about those sensations, we summon the Way of the Word to take into its gaze the infinitely complex series of input that storm us on every instant, so we can reason about it.
I don't agree that the Way of the Word has any control over the real us. It can help us see and measure differently what is good for us, but it remains an abstraction. Consciousness is but a tool we use, and like all tools, it must be shaped and used by something else.
In the case of the feral child, its mind has not been shaped to form consciousness in the Way of the Word. It was shaped by its environment in order to better survive it. We can still interact with the feral child by means of the real world, the same we do with animals: sensations, empathy and action.
There are a lot of interesting ideas that are coming out of modern neuroscience as well. A self-propagating information system that evolved alongside the physical homo sapiens is not that far fetched.
Thank you for such a thoughtful comment :) I really love the wording of "self-propagating information system," do you mind if I borrow it in the future?
Please do! I look forward to seeing it in a future article 😊