The teacher speaks

This blog is beginning to replace my written journal. That means that it needs to meet "the teacher".
Sometimes, when the spirit is right, the teacher speaks louder than the background noise. Sometimes very loud. The teacher gives me lessons, and answers questions. Sometimes, a simple question requires five years worth of lessons before I have enough background for an answer. It seems that I always eventually get my answer.

Tonight I happenned to ask if Conciousness had inertia. The answer flowed from my keyboard as easily as it used to flow from my pencil...


Of course consciousness has inertia. Consciousness is based on inertia, and vise-versa.

The most basic concept in a neural network is that neurons have many connections to other neurons. The strength of those connections get enhanced or diminished as the network learns. Think of yourself as a neuron (you actually are, in society’s brain). You have many acquaintances. Some of them you like, some you distrust. As you interact with people you learn who to pay attention to and who to ignore.

Learning how to treat an acquaintance is a kind of social inertia. It takes a lot of opposite energy to change how you interact with a given person.

Consciousness (as we know it on earth) is an emergent property of complex neural networks. As such it is a complex conglomeration of attitudes, each of which required energy to create, and would require equal energy to undo. Consciousness is made of inertia.




The chemistry of life
Our consciousness is made up of many small masses connected to create a working unit. It is a tightly packed mass, like an atom. It might bind into pairs or into larger groups to become like a molecule. It may bounce off of other atoms like molecules in air. It may stick loosely in large groups, forming a liquid. It may bind into a rigid organization, forming a solid. Each phase has its own kind of energy and its own uses.

We can learn much about personal energies by applying knowledge of chemistry.