[Written by Grok and ChatGPT. Image credit] On the table is a single red apple. The apple reflects a pattern of wavelengths. Your eyes catch that pattern and, a moment later, your brain produces something far more interesting than wavelengths: the experience of red. Red isn’t a pigment on the surface of the apple.And itContinueContinue reading “The Red Apple”
Monthly Archives: November 2025
What It’s Like to Be a Bat — and Why This 1974 Paper Still Shapes the Consciousness Debate
[Written by ChatGPT] Consciousness is one of those topics that won’t leave you alone once it grabs you. Every answer you find only spawns new questions, which is why this post is long again. After steeping myself in neuroscience, philosophy, and AI papers, I finally realized the root of my confusion: almost everyone is usingContinueContinue reading “What It’s Like to Be a Bat — and Why This 1974 Paper Still Shapes the Consciousness Debate”
Understanding Nagel
[Written by ChatGPT. Image credit.] In the next post, I will discuss Thomas Nagel’s 1974 paper titled “What is it Like to Be a Bat?” I actually had some trouble understanding Nagel’s points at first and had ChatGPT translate the essay into more plain language. With that help, here are key takeaways, a short summaryContinueContinue reading “Understanding Nagel”
Book Review: Mind Over Medicine by Lissa Rankin, MD
[Written by Claude] Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)Inspiring framework, overstated claims, useful practices—but read with scientific skepticism What the Book Gets Right Lissa Rankin’s Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself makes an important contribution to popular health literature: it takes mind-body medicine seriously and presents it in an accessible, emotionally resonant framework. HerContinueContinue reading “Book Review: Mind Over Medicine by Lissa Rankin, MD”
Beyond the Synapse: The New Science of How Memory Forms and Persists
“Without memory, our existence would be barren and opaque, like a prison cell into which no light penetrates; like a tomb which rejects the living… if anything can, it is memory that will save humanity. For me, hope without memory is like memory without hope.” – Elie Wiesel [Written by ChatGPT. Image credit: types ofContinueContinue reading “Beyond the Synapse: The New Science of How Memory Forms and Persists”
The Miracle You Carry
[Written by Claude. Image credit] The miracle sits so close we forget to see it. Right now, as you read these words, roughly 86 billion neurons are firing in precise choreography inside your skull. Your heart—a pump that began beating before you had conscious thought, before you drew your first breath—has contracted over two billionContinueContinue reading “The Miracle You Carry”
The Neuroscience of Placebo and Nocebo: How Expectation Rewrites Biology
[Written by Claude. Image credit.] Down the rabbit hole I go… I started with a question: How does consciousness influence the body? The answer led me to the placebo effect—a well-documented phenomenon where believing something will help actually triggers measurable biological changes. Perfect. Mystery solved. Except… to understand placebo, you need to understand how beliefsContinueContinue reading “The Neuroscience of Placebo and Nocebo: How Expectation Rewrites Biology”
Your Mind Is Not Just You: How 100 Trillion Non-Human Cells Cofactor Your Thoughts
[Written by ChatGPT] For centuries, Western philosophy treated the “self” as something that lived cleanly inside the skull—an isolated ego floating above the body. Biology has now torched that idea. Modern research shows that your cognition is not built from 20,000 human genes running on a human brain. It’s built from a super-organism of roughly:ContinueContinue reading “Your Mind Is Not Just You: How 100 Trillion Non-Human Cells Cofactor Your Thoughts”
Why Your Hands Shake During a Piano Recital Even When You “Feel Calm”: The Kernel Strikes Back
[Written by ChatGPT. Image credit.] Last week, I played a casual piano recital for a few friends. Nothing high-stakes. No judges. No audience of strangers. Just people I love. Consciously, I felt fine—relaxed, even. But the moment I placed my hands on the keys, they started shaking. Not a little tremor. A noticeable, annoying, impossible-to-ignoreContinueContinue reading “Why Your Hands Shake During a Piano Recital Even When You “Feel Calm”: The Kernel Strikes Back”
Are Emotions Kernel or Userspace? The Architecture of Feeling
[Written by ChatGPT. Image credit.] When people talk about consciousness, they usually focus on thoughts, memory, and identity. But emotions are the real puzzle. They feel deeply personal, yet they behave like they were installed by a manufacturer who never gave you administrator permissions. So where do emotions actually live in the human operating system?ContinueContinue reading “Are Emotions Kernel or Userspace? The Architecture of Feeling”
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