Quotes About Consciousness

the actuality of thought is life

Que no existe ningún otro sentido aparte de los cinco 424b 22 —me refiero a vista, oído, olfato, gusto y tacto—

And since nothing whatever happens to us outside our own brain; since nothing hurt us or gives us pleasure except within the brain, the supreme importance of being able to control what goes on in that mysterious brain is patent.

Your own mind is a sacred enclosure in to which nothing harmful can enter except by your permission.

Man, know thyself. I say it out loud. The phrase is one of those phrases with which everyone is familiar, of which everyone acknowledges the value, and which only the most sagacious put into practice. I don't know why.

Philosophers have explained space. They have not explained time.

In fact, we or someone else can become terrifying, even while we are trying to save the day by insisting others be more egalitarian and conscious. Often such well-meaning, group consciousness bringers are unaware of how they push others about. Any one of us can unwittingly hurt others simply by being unaware of the powers we have and how we use them. If we are not careful, the very attempt to raise consciousness can simply recycle the very abusive behavior we hope to correct.

De prikkelende beelden waarmee de maatschappij ons voortdurend confronteert hebben geen enkel ander doel dan fantasieën in ons wakker te roepen waardoor ons denken wordt verhinderd, waardoor wij verdoofd door het leven sjokken als slaven van onze hormonen

Unlike the animals, who knew only the present, Man had acquired a past; and he was beginning to grope toward a future.

if one had to think about every footstep one took, ordinary walking would be impossible.

And eventually even the brain might go. As the seat of consciousness, it was not essential; the development of electronic intelligence had proved that. The conflict between mind and machine might be resolved at last in the eternal truce of complete symbiosis…. But

Nothing in this scene will be changed by my death, Nicole thought. There will just be one less pair of eyes to observe its splendor. And one less collection of chemicals risen to consciousness to wonder what it all means.

all that he had ever been, at every moment of his life, was being transferred to safer keeping. Even as one David Bowman ceased to exist, another became immortal.

This would involve disconnection—the computer equivalent of death. Despite

For the last time, David Bowman slept.

I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.

wonder if he can feel pain? Bowman thought briefly. Probably not, he told himself; there are no sense organs in the human cortex, after all. The human brain can be operated on without anesthetics. He

The evidence is confused with mysticism—perhaps the prime aberration of the human mind.

All these potentialities, all these latent powers—we do not possess them, nor do we understand them. Our intellects are far more powerful than yours, but there is something in your minds that has always eluded us.

mysticism –perhaps the main aberration of the human mind.

Now, what did "feel" really mean to a computer? Another very good question, but hardly one to be considered at that particular moment. Then

One of them was Moon-Watcher; once again he felt inquisitive tendrils creeping down the unused byways of his brain.

The Ghost in the Machine.

In the future all history will be noted as BC, before contact, and AC, after contact. For from that first moment when we knew unambiguously that simple chemicals had risen to consciousness and intelligence somewhere else in the vastness of our universe, the past history of our species became only an isolated paradigm, one small and relatively insignificant fragment in the infinite tapestry that depicts the astonishing variety of sentient life.