Quote:
|
Originally Posted by maddog
So imagine a person who is blind, deaf, cannot smell and has no tactile sensory input. His only contact with his environment is his thoughts. This might be complicated to imagine so we can imagine this condition occured as some debilitating disease as an adult. This gives the advantage that he knew of these abilities to create memories before such a disease. Add to that his ability of an idetic or photographic memory. Thus I am creating this individual to have a complete memory of every experience before his injury or disease and no ability now.
|
Thanks Maddog for bringing up this mind-stimulating scenario. Let’s try to formulate an answer based on the foundation built in my earlier reply.
As per (1): Assuming that the individual you describe (the Subject) is not medically brain dead or otherwise ‘unconscious’, the Subject should still be conscious of himself as being conscious of
something. Therefore, the Subject’s ego should not be affected by his condition.
As per (2): Assuming a healthy brain, the Subject should remain conscious that he is a conscious being
in the world. Now, what ‘world’ is he in? More generally: What ‘world’ is
anyone in? What about Maddog’s world? Tormod’s? Freethinker’s? George Bush’s? or mine? I think that it is fair to say that everyone’s world is different. Some people see the colour red as ‘danger’, while others see ‘meat’. How much different is someone’s world from someone else’s? Is my ‘world’ better (or bigger or wider or deeper) than the Subject’s ‘world’? I don’t know. Nobody knows.
The Subject’s world, however, is probably anything but static. He may not be able to see the chair by his hospital bed, but he can ‘see’, or recall, the chair in the kitchen of his younger years. In his mind, he can rearrange the furniture in the kitchen and discover a new layout that provides more space for guests, a layout that he has never thought of before. He can develop new knowledge from what he already knows. With new knowledge, he is expanding the possibilities in his mind.
As per (3a): The Subject may one day realise that every ‘morning’, he is faced with two choices: Either cussing out his condition all ‘day’, or spending his time working on new discoveries. He is totally free to choose either one; he can even start the day cussing then change his mind later. His freedom of choice is unaffected by his condition.
As per (3b): While thinking about his choices, he becomes conscious about consequences. For instance, if he let go and spend too long cursing, he could fall into depression, schizophrenia, even madness for the rest of his life. (A low involving path. A dark prospect.) If, on the other hand, he keeps the discipline up and continues working hard to make discoveries, his mind has a chance to remain healthy and a can live the rest of his live in a better mood. (A high involving path. A brighter prospect.) Even with his condition, he will have to live with the consequences of his choices.
As per (3c): The Subject doesn’t know for sure what will happen. When he takes a break of hard work and pouts for a while, he fears of falling into darkness. When he works hard to keep the brain going, he has no guaranty that his good mood will prevail. He has no knowledge whatsoever of the future.
Now if we put all of this together, we get:
The Subject is conscious of being conscious of his own total and unrestrainable freedom of creating and annihilating possibilities for himself (and for him alone) in his world.
Therefore, his consciousness is no different than yours or mine, except for the fact that his consciousness cannot affect others.
Any more thoughts on that?
