Constructive Destruction

V.S. Ramachandran – Consciousness, Qualia & Self

“The human brain, it has been said, is the most complexly organized structure in the universe and to appreciate this you just have to look at some numbers. The brain is made up of one hundred billion nerve cells or “neurons” which is the basic structural and functional units of the nervous system. Each neuron makes something like a thousand to ten thousand contacts with other neurons and these points of contact are called synapses where exchange of information occurs. And based on this information, someone has calculated that the number of possible permutations and combinations of brain activity, in other words the numbers of brain states, exceeds the number of elementary particles in the known universe.”
– Vilayanur S. Ramachandran

Awareness, Consciousness, Existence, Experience, Identity, Perception, Philosophy, Psychonaut, Reality, Science, The Unknown
Daniel Dennett – Consciousness

“If the concept of consciousness were to fall to science, what would happen to our sense of moral agency and free will? If conscious experience were reduced somehow to mere matter in motion, what would happen to our appreciation of love and pain and dreams and joy? If conscious human beings were just animated material objects, how could anything we do to them be right or wrong?”

“There is no single, definitive ‘stream of consciousness,’ because there is no central Headquarters, no Cartesian Theater where ‘it all comes together’ for the perusal of a Central Meaner.”

– Daniel Dennett
– Consciousness Explained

Awareness, Consciousness, Energy, Existence, Experience, Identity, Nature, Perception, Philosophy, Reality, Science
John Searle – Consciousness

“Where conscious subjectivity is concerned, there is no distinction between the observation and the thing observed.”

“The reason that no computer program can ever be a mind is simply that a computer program is only syntactical, and minds are more than syntactical. Minds are semantical, in the sense that they have more than a formal structure, they have a content.”

– John Searle
– Biological naturalism

Awareness, Consciousness, Energy, Existence, Experience, Identity, Nature, Perception, Philosophy, Psychonaut, Reality, The Unknown
Michio Kaku – Will Mankind Destroy Itself?

“It’s humbling to realize that the developmental gulf between a minuscule ant colony and our modern human civilization is only a tiny fraction of the distance between a Type 0 and a Type III civilization – a factor of 100 billion billion, in fact. Yet we have such a highly regarded view of ourselves, we believe a Type III civilization would find us irresistible and would rush to make contact with us. The truth is, however, they may be as interested in communicating with humans as we are keen to communicate with ants.”
– Michio Kaku

Awareness, Cosmology, Earth, Energy, Existence, Nature, Peace, Perspective, Power, Reality, Science, Society, Space, The Unknown, Unity
Terence McKenna – Culture is not your friend

“The felt presence of immediate experience– this is all you know. Everything else comes as unconfirmed rumor.”
–Terence McKenna

Awareness, Consciousness, Existence, Experience, Identity, Linguistics, Perception, Philosophy, Reality, Society, The Unknown
Terence McKenna – You are the center of the Mandala

“It’s all about personal empowerment, and personal empowerment means deconditioning yourself from the values and the programs of the society and putting your own values and programs in place.”
– Terence McKenna

Awareness, Consciousness, Existence, Experience, Identity, Linguistics, Love, Perception, Philosophy, Reality, Society, The Unknown
Bill Hicks – Play From Your Fucking Heart

“When did mediocrity and banality become a good image for your children?
I want my children listening to people who fucking rocked!”
– Bill Hicks

Art, Awareness, Consciousness, Energy, Existence, Experience, Identity, Linguistics, Love, Philosophy, Sound
Alan Watts – Meaningless Life

“The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present.”
– Alan Watts

Awareness, Consciousness, Energy, Existence, Experience, Identity, Love, Nature, Perception, Philosophy, Reality, Society
Carl Jung – Death and the Psyche

“Look forward to the next day as if he had to spend centuries and then he lives happily. But when he is afraid and he doesn’t look forward; he looks back. He petrifies. He gets stiff and he dies before his time, but when he’s living on, looking forward to the great adventure that is ahead, then he lives.”
– Carl Jung

Awareness, Consciousness, Existence, Experience, Love, Nature, Perception, Psychonaut, The Unknown
Steve Jobs – How to live before you die

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
– Steve Jobs

Awareness, Consciousness, Energy, Experience, Identity, Love, Perspective, Philosophy, Power, Psychonaut