The ego tunnel
We’re used to thinking about the self as an independent entity, something that we either have or are. In The Ego Tunnel, philosopher Thomas Metzinger claims otherwise: No such thing as a self exists. The conscious self is the content of a model created by our brain — an internal image, but one we cannot experience as an image. Everything we experience is “a virtual self in a virtual reality.” But if the self is not “real,” why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct it? Do we still have souls, free will, personal autonomy, or moral accountability? In a time when the science of cognition is becoming as controversial as evolution, The Ego Tunnel is a radical rethinking of the nature of consciousness and the myster of the mind. Perseus Academic
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17recommend
34mentions
24people
2011–2026years
71% recommend29% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I understand what you're saying but people care because they are curious. For me, there are two questions I wish to know the answer to and which I am sure I'll never find out: how does human consiousness work (forget a general level but like how do I experience this subjective experience from a purely mechanical device assumingly) and second, what happened before the big bang or rather what is the big bang?
My current belief from what I've read is that the first person experience humans feel is basically an illusion mostly and a process than a thing in itself. The Ego Tunnel is a good book to read on this.
But as for AI being consious, I feel there is a lot of stupidity when it comes to this domain. Because we fundamentally lack the understanding of what consiousness even is, there is absolutely no way we can say whether an AI is or is not consious yet going by convential metrics, it is surely dead and not alive so even if it is consious, it is a different form of consiousness imo one that is incompatible with living beings and our idea of what consiousness is (no matter how basic it is).
I can absolutely claim a computer is not a biological being and is not alive. I don't think there is any disagreement in that. Everything else we normally associate with conisousness is biological and living.
- I got into meditation after reading Thomas Metzingers "Ego Tunnel" and it was a real blessing since.
His newest book is on the experience of pure consciousness and is based upon 500 experimental reports by people who meditate. It's an interesting read. He even made it available for free here: https://mpe-project.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Metzinge...
The homepage of the project: https://mpe-project.info/the-mpe-project/
On Metzinger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Metzinger
- A related book that I found interesting is "The Ego Tunnel" by Thomas Metzinger [1]. He's a philosopher but also brings in current (for 2010) neuroscience research into the study of consciousness and the feeling of a "self".
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Ego-Tunnel-Science-Mind-Myth/dp/04650...
- I pretty much agree with Metzinger's take in "The Ego Tunnel." I side with the "self is an illusion" crowd. Conscious experience is a tool for the body to solve some problem. I see this when I get better at any task. Either I don't perceive the task at all or it feels completely different over time. Driving starts out as a full attention task which feels a particular way. Now after 20 years it feels like walking.
So when you talk about needing to know "who" is experiencing, I don't really follow the thread. "I" don't exist. And the experience I'm having is wholly constructed in my mind, with no direct access to reality, only a holodeck. There is no me having an experience (2 objects interacting). There is only the constructed experience which has the side effect of "controlling the body." (a process happening now)
I think the hard problem is empty. I'm satisfied physical theories.
- I suggest The Ego Tunnel by Metzinger. The arguments and demonstrations are far better than merely hand-wavy and circular.
- My personal favorite is Blindsight [0][1]. I read it multiple times (3 or 4, I think) over the years.
If you like Blindsight, you’ll probably want to continue with the sidequel, Echopraxia. You can also find them bundled together under the name Firefall.
And I think out of his main works, Blindsight is probably the most accessible. It also led me to Thomas Metzinger’s “The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self” [2], which Watts used as a source material in his research and had good things to say about.
The Rifters series is great, too, but there’s a sort of darkness or heaviness to it that may not work for everyone.
And bonus content, a fan made short movie based on Blindsight, here: [3].
I hope this helps. :)
Links:
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight_(Watts_novel)
[1]: https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm
