/sci/ - Science & Math

>>9360928
>>9361053
>>9355608
Okay anons I have a question

We are made up of individual cells which are not conscious, or potentially "lightly" conscious, for instance some cells are capable of processing stimuli in complex stateful ways - they may very well be conscious in a strange way we cannot comprehend.

And our entire bodies and nervous systems are likewise conscious. If we are the cells of the super-organism that is society, is it possible that we are part of a larger social consciousness, in the literal, non-metaphorical sense, which is not aware of us as individuals but has its own conscious experience, potentially moods or abstract meta-emotions we cannot comprehend?

I mean this in quite a literal way. I have a singular viewpoint, I'm looking out of my eyes right now and also hearing my keyboard and computer fan, and feeling senses from my skin. It could be said that my foot individually feels things regardless of what my eyes see. Similarly I individually am conscious regardless of what you see

Could society be a conscious entity of itself who has its own observer inside looking at the world from many sensory vantage points at once? Similarly, what if even exotic consciousnesses like future AI we create are actually part of this same consciousness? And beyond that, the universe itself has a consciousness emergent from these individual pieces

Sounds like hippy bullshit, but it also actually sounds like it's necessarily the case if we are aware of our modular nature which still somehow maintains a cohesive point of view

There are famous quotes like "we are a way for the universe to see itself" and I mean, what are the implications if this is literally true? And it is obviously literally true