Tag Archives: Self

Self, Universe, and Gibson’s Peripheral

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As part of my on-going test drive of Google’s Gemini, I uploaded my 77 blog posts tagged Self and 51 posts tagged Universe with the following prompt:

I’d like to discuss “the nature of The Universe” as it relates to the Self. Before we begin, does Gemini “know” the premise of William Gibson’s novel, The Peripheral? No need to explain the premise, just making sure you are familiar with the story.

The resulting conversation (I don’t know what else to call it) is TLDR for most of today’s attention spans but it is an… interaction?… I could only have with an AI. Those of a philosophical bent might find it interesting. (see tags below)

Training humans. Training AI.

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Any discussion of LLM‘s will eventually include some reference to training. Positive aspects as well as the negatives always seem to point back to how the LLM was trained. I’ve been pondering how that is different from how humans are “trained.” Eventually, I suppose a human child will take over its own learning experience. But isn’t that likely where we’re headed with LLM‘s?

I put that question to ChatGPT and, as so often happens, a lengthy discussion ensued, touching on what it means for an LLM to “trust” and should human trust be considered superior, which led to the concepts of self and free will.

Discussing a book with something that hasn’t read it

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I couldn’t find authoritative data but  I assume millions of copies of William Gibson’s novel, The Peripheral have been sold. And many more millions share my interest in Eastern spiritual traditions (specifically the illusory nature of the self). And the subset of those who fall into both groups is probably large… I just don’t happen to know any of those people. So I fired up my ChatGPT app fully aware of the bullshit risk.

“I’d like to get your take on one of the plot elements in William Gibson’s novel, The Peripheral. Before I get to that, I’m curious about how you know what you know. For example, were you trained on the full text of that novel or would your “understanding” be based on reviews or other sources?”

The rest of the conversation (PDF) was pretty interesting.

Why Your Eyes Instantly Find Where You Left Off in a Book

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When I’m reading a book I sometimes stop at the end of a chapter but just as often stop reading in the middle of a page or a paragraph. When I pick the book up again, an hour or even a day later, I open the book to the bookmarked page and start reading to find where I had stopped reading. Before I am conscious of reading a line, my eye is instantly(?) pulled to the exact line where I previously stopped. Every time. It’s as though my brain has scanned the page and remembered where I quite reading, before I am consciously aware of this happening. I asked GPT 4o to explain this phenomenon:

Why Your Eyes Instantly Find Where You Left Off in a Book

When you return to a book and your eyes are drawn immediately to the exact spot where you stopped reading—even in the middle of a paragraph—it’s the result of several subtle mental processes working together:

1. Implicit Memory at Work
Your brain doesn’t necessarily store a conscious note like “I stopped in paragraph three.” Instead, it saves a situational snapshot—a blend of the visual pattern of the text, the shape of the paragraphs, the words nearby, and your position on the page. This is a form of implicit memory—unconscious knowledge that influences your behavior without deliberate recall.

2. Visual-Spatial Recognition
Books are both visual and spatial. Your brain remembers where you were on the page (top, middle, lower left, etc.). When you reopen the book, your eyes are drawn to that same general area because the layout is unchanged—your mental map still fits.

3. Contextual Cueing
This is a subconscious process where your brain uses surrounding information to guide your attention. Words or phrases near your stopping point act as subtle cues. Even if you don’t consciously recall them, they feel familiar and help your eyes lock in on the right spot.

4. Speed: Faster Than Conscious Thought
You often find the right place before you’re even aware of reading. Your brain’s attentional systems guide your eyes within milliseconds—faster than conscious awareness can keep up. It’s as if your mind says, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”

5. Meditation May Enhance This
If you practice meditation (as you do), your ability to notice subtle shifts in attention and visual memory may be heightened. You’re more likely to register that precise moment of recognition and experience it with clarity.

In short, your brain combines visual memory, spatial awareness, and unconscious pattern recognition to bring your eyes exactly where they need to go—with remarkable precision and speed.

I remain fascinated that GPT remembers things like my practice of meditation. I followed up on that. And in how many other parts of our daily life is this happening.

After years of reading and meditation practice, I’m convinced that 1) the self and free will are illusions. Most of our existence is happening under the hood. Our experiences are just replays.

Two of my favorite “-isms”

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Anyone who knows me knows of my interest in consciousness and reality (see tags below for more). When it comes to understanding reality, I’m gonna go with one of the following. (or some combination.)

Monism is the view that all reality is fundamentally one substance or principle. Everything in the universe is ultimately the same kind of thing. This can be physical (everything is matter) or mental (everything is mind), or something else entirely.

Panpsychism, on the other hand, is the idea that consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of the universe. According to panpsychism, all things have some form of consciousness or experience, even if it’s very basic, down to the smallest particles.

So, while both can be viewed as “unifying” theories, monism is about the nature of reality being one substance, whereas panpsychism is about consciousness being fundamental and present everywhere.

Why Do Your 30 Trillion Cells Feel Like a Self?

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I first became aware of David Eagleman in 2011 as the author of a little book titled Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives. Which led me to his book Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain As luck would have it, he gave a lecture later that year at nearby Westminster College (How the Internet Will Save the World: Six Easy Steps to Avert the Collapse of Civilizations) which I found fascinating. So when I discovered his weekly podcast I was quick to check it out and discovered he has done a deep dive into one of my favorite topics: the illusion of the self. (73 blog posts) Why Do Your 30 Trillion Cells Feel Like a Self? Part 1 & Part 2

WARNING: These are long. Part 1 is 30 min, Part 2 one hour.

Thoughts think themselves

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For those of us who subscribe to the theory there is no self — that me “I” thought is just a persistent illusion — a frequent question is where do thoughts come from if there is no “me” to think them?

They come from the subconscious whose name happens to be Jeff. Jeff sits in the refrigerator that is your consciousness. He has one of those horseshoe magnets he uses to arrange tiny word magnets on the outside of the refrigerator. Jeff is working backward and in the dark (trust me on that point) so the ideas he strings together are often random and arbitrary. He can sense when there is an awareness on the other side of the door and this makes him uncomfortable so he slows down the magnet work. When he feels the awareness depart he gets busy again.