My thought is that any science fiction taken far enough becomes fantasy, because the reality of the human psyche is inescapable. If there is no god, we will make one. If there is no magick, we will create it, because it’s a reflection of who we are at our core.

What of non-deists in that model? Your statement that in the lack of a deity we will create one. Oh, I didn’t necessarily mean deity in the strictest sense. We will create a conceptual locus of reference. We will create a heart for the universe, even if that core is something in no way resembling human consciousness as we understand it. The simple reason I assert this is because in the end, we all have some measure of reverence for knowledge or experience. This is why we form intellectual and creative institutions even now.

I will ask, if you can accept no ghost in the machine, what about a machine in the ghost? If consciousness is an emerging quality of the domain of reality we base science fiction stories on, then are there any principles, we can identify, that keep pushing consciousness into the picture?

Isn’t that what science is doing, finding the machine in the ghost? Some do seem to be trying.

If consciousness is entirely arbitrary, just a weird possible configuration of physical existence, then why can’t we engineer multiple forms of consciousness, or completely re-engineer our own? If the plan for rebuilding human consciousness is created by pre-existing human consciousness, then how could it entirely rid itself of the original principles it was functioning under?

The consciousness appears only to the thinker, in that sense each thinker is an isolated island of thought unto itself. Yet nothing actually supports a notion of cognitive isolation. Even in a strictly neuropsychiatric sense, we give every evidence of being set up to work in conjunction with others of our kind, and even species we don’t consider peers in this area.

According to that rule, only two need to agree and it will manifest. But that is not to say you will see it manifest in your lifetime. Yes, sometimes the awareness originates in a very small subset, even in people who weren’t even involved in the culture the event occurs. Some believe the Native Americans predicted a number of modern medical advances.

What science fiction are you using in your lives?

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~