Oct 22, 20198 min
Updated: 5 days ago
Articles on illusions: (https://www.philosocom.com/post/the-two-types-of-illusions
https://www.philosocom.com/post/system-of-illusion-reality-as-application-by-igal-shenderey
https://www.philosocom.com/post/existence-as-multi-layered
https://www.philosocom.com/post/distinguishing-truth-from-illusion )
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Ms. Tamara Moskal's Synopsis
Our bodies are complex physical entities that can create non-concrete illusions or Mental Dimensions. Perhaps only organisms aware of such mental dimensions can be considered conscious beings. Our ability to be aware of our experiences separates us as mental-based beings from inanimate objects.
Also, AI is an inanimate tool without self-awareness because sentient AI has yet to be created. Mental Dimensions might result from an evolution enabling humans to develop social skills and ensure collective survival through the domination of the Earth.
The downside of this mental capacity is the inability to distinguish between objective and subjective, truth and lie, and external and internal, making us irrational beings by default, programmed to survive. Our access to the Mental Dimension biases us toward obeying the leaders who define right and wrong. We follow them to ensure our survival, often forgiving political deception as long as it contributes positively to our collective functioning.
The mind is an "illusion," similar to the written words our minds interpret as meaningful content. Some illusions may have more practical value for collective survival than the objective truth. Philosophy opposes the intersubjective reality of the Mental Dimension and illusions created by society. We must philosophize until we reach "The Great Void," the understanding that only the pure Physical Dimension is real, beyond the social and personal cages of the Mental Dimension. That's the reason why consciousness can reveal and deceive others and ourselves.
How Our Physical Bodies Create the Mental Dimension
What if the collection of components we call “mind” is, in itself, physical? Thoughts are neurology, emotions are biochemistry, and so forth. Every mental occurrence is a result of a physical occurrence inside our bodies and from interaction with other bodies.
Still, not every physical component leads to a mental occurrence. That is unless the philosophy of animism is true. Therefore, I suggest that our bodies are more evolved physical substances, which are complex enough to create the non-concrete illusion that is the Mental Dimension, unique or not to humans and other organisms.
Our bodies are gates to this special dimension, unseen and uncreated by any object other than ourselves, as individuals and as collectives.
Any object that does not create this access to said dimension, or no longer does, can be regarded as inanimate. Perhaps, only those who have access to it, and can be concious of it, can be considered living beings. Since bugs can be trained, they could have a mentality as well.
The Mental Dimension is, basically, the very plane of existence that makes us conscious beings. It separates us from the rest of the physical reality by giving us the ability to not only experience, but be aware of said experience.
An inanimate object may experience things too, like an ice cube that was once fluid. This shows to us that there is a difference between an experience, like the years of a used car, to awareness, like a war veteran reflectng on his past.
However, that ice cubes and used cars do not have in theory, the consciousness that we humans have. And that is the thing that separates us mental-based beings from the rest of this existence.
Tool for Survival, Playground for Deception
Be surprised, but as of now, humanity has yet to create a sentient A.I, according to PCguide.:
Sentience refers to whether an AI model possesses consciousness and feelings – characteristics that OpenAI’s model lacks.
The model would also need to have self-awareness and emulate human emotions. But, does sentient AI even exist?
At the moment, we have not created sentient AI just yet. Some AI scientists even argue that our technology and understanding are not advanced enough to achieve such a model.
If our current A.Is were sentient, they would possess self awareness and reflect on their own existence independently of our interactions with it. Thus, it can be considered inanimated, for it is a tool, a language model. I refuse to use it to enhance my articles, but I digress.
I believe that the Mental Dimension was created in us by evolution in order to create massive social networks, which have ensured our superiority over less complex and/or powerful species. The entire point of this Mental Dimension is to develop our social skills and coherence in the name of collective survival and the most certain way to survive is by dominating the world. Those who want to survive better must prosper.
What I refer to as "world domination" is our inclination, as a promising species, to ensure our survival through excessive prosperity. Without optimal prosperity, our chances at survival, as a species, would have been greatly reduced. Hence the valuable power found in excess.
Now that we have achieved world domination, no other species on this planet can make us extinct.
Social skills and the ability to collaborate are impossible without the mental dimension of our experience. We need to store common ideas and memories in our minds and act accordingly in order to do things we cannot do by ourselves.
For example, if we want to run a business, we need to give our employees specific roles, and make sure they fulfill these roles in the name of profit and other pursuits. A set of inanimate objects cannot collaborate, unless automated by us. Since the state is also a business, the mental dimension is also important on a national level, as well as any level where interpersonal colleboration and exchange is required /desired.
However, the cost of this evolution is the inability to specifically differ between objective and subjective, truth and lie, real and illusionary, external and internal.
We may not be rational beings by default because we are programmed to survive, not to make up for this specific cost, which involves greater social risk. Philosophy may be regarded as impractical because it does not necessarily contribute to survival like psychology is, for instance.
In this way, our access to the Mental Dimension is constantly biased to obey those who struggle for power and succeed. They define for us what is right and true and what is false and wrong. Conforming to their authority saves us time and energy we can dedicate to labor, rest and entertainment.
That is, of course, unless we struggle for dominance ourselves, like I'm doing by building this content empire you're in right now, but my example is not what matters right now.
When we follow an authority and put our trust in it, we may sometimes be doing so, completely or partially, to ensure our own survival. It does not matter if those social authorities are correct or incorrect; as long as we hold their opinions well enough (or pretend we do) they shall determine and dominate our positions in the abstract Mental Dimension.
Do you see how this sphere of being contributes to our collective functioning? Politicians may use deception under ulterior motives to gain power, but what if the power they gain ensures the prosperity of the country?
Understanding the Mind
We can only know things through our mind. Our mind is both our blessing and our curse, our greatest strength that has led us to dominate this globe, and our greatest weakness when it is either too incompetent or untrustworthy for our goals.
Since my mind is a tool I use for this job as a philosopher, I try to make sure I'm mentally stable, and avoid certain substances that could hinder my efforts. The mind is the very portal to the Mental Dimension, so having it in poor condition would mean that my access to this dimension will be subpar.
Those who successfully create the system of beliefs in our minds and direct it in accordance to their desire for power, will have dominance over our Mental Dimension. Consciously or unconsciously for us, they will be one of the many tiny and enormous heads which administer the globe by its social molecules, which merely exist in our heads, and are represented by our actions.
The mind does not exist outside of abstract reality, even if it creates delusions that seem to appear ourside of it. It is the portal for a shared reality that is based on a shared, abstract network.
The Illusory Cage
The mind is a construct of highly advanced and highly complex matter; it is a brew of interactions with the physical and inter-subjective environments, and a key of our individual identities. Capable of high reflexiblity, it is there to help us survive and endure existence. The thing is, that the mind is an "illusion", and illusions do not exactly exist. I am aware it sounds contradictory. Please entertain my reasoning to this.
The words that you are reading have no purpose in the world beyond our minds; they are but mere shapes covering a screen and a page. Because society is a construct of our minds, society does not exist, either. It’s all an illusion.
It is an illusion we are taught to deem as fact because, as said before, we are programmed to survive as a collective, and not aim for optimal rationality. Some delusions have a greater practical value than the most profound of truths. We do not need to understand society on a philosophical degree in order to survive within it, for example.
Philosophy is the antagonist of inter-subjective mentality. Where the Mental Dimension builds, philosophy ruins, reforms, and exposes. Where inter-subjectivity narrows, philosophy broadens. Where inter-subjectivity darkens in a womb of safety, absolution, and assumed certainty, philosophy shines a sharp light on it, which not all are willing to embrace.
For it's a light that hurts like peeling away layers of an onion, as the protection of illusions gradually fades, until the truth is finally revealed, as painful as it may be. Society creates many layers of illusions, covering truths and presenting them as grand and exalted. And sometimes, as the "truth".
Therefore, if we are to know matter, as the matter which exists beyond the manipulation of the Mental Dimension, we must philosophize until "The Great Void" is revealed.
By "Great Void" I refer to this, in this context: To come to an understanding that nothing reigns over the pure Physical Dimension beyond the cages of the conscious being. Beyond the social and personal cages of the Mental Dimension. They are there to protect us from isolation, rejection by others and grief.
That's exactly why consciousness can reveal, as well as decieve not only others, but ourselves.
And it is with philosophy that we can exit these cages, even if only within the realm of the mind: Through realization and through acceptance.
Mr. Nathan Lasher's Feedback
We shall begin my review by talking about the concept of multiple dimensions. What if everyone is in their own cognitive dimension? You evolve it more to include the concept of self.
You exist in two different places: Your cognitive self and in another dimension. The dimension of your external self. The self which people think of when they think of you. It wasn’t until recently developing my personality, long story, that I was able to depersonalize this concept.
You exist in other people’s minds. Your actions determine how you appear in other people’s dimensions.
[This] goes into the concept of public image. You want to protect this at all costs. If you want to be seen as a certain type of person, just think to yourself: “What would a person who is …….. Do?” Your actions determine who you are. Not just the words that are used to describe yourself. Words mean very little because you might be seen as a lazy person, but does that restrict you from doing actions which tell a different story? [It's then] when you realize that words are not absolutes but merely descriptive temperaments meaning they can always be changed.
We cannot create sentient AI as this would involve understanding the conscious mind better, something humans haven’t yet figured out. AI can only do what it is told to do. Before AI can advance to such a point. an entire new branch must be dedicated to study in psychology. How are we supposed to create a copy of consciousness when we barely understand it ourselves?