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”

Your Body Runs on Kernel Mode (And You’ll Never Get Root Access)

[Written by ChatGPT] Lately I’ve caught myself staring at my own thoughts the way you’d stare at a weird process in Task Manager—curious, vaguely suspicious, and wondering who actually put me in charge of anything. The more I think about consciousness, the more it feels like evolution basically handed us a glossy user interface andContinueContinue reading “Your Body Runs on Kernel Mode (And You’ll Never Get Root Access)”

The Parliament of Consciousness: Why There Is No Single “You”

[Written by Claude. Image credit.] A follow-up meditation on the illusion of unity. Yesterday we celebrated the mystery of consciousness—that miraculous fact of subjective experience emerging from matter. Today, I want to tell you something that might make that mystery even stranger, and somehow more beautiful: The unified “you” that seems to be reading thisContinueContinue reading “The Parliament of Consciousness: Why There Is No Single “You””

The Mystery Worth Celebrating: A Meditation on Consciousness

[Written by Claude – any reference to “I” is Claude talking about itself. Image credit] There’s something miraculous happening right now as you read these words. Somewhere behind your eyes, beneath your skull, a universe of experience is unfolding. You’re not just processing visual symbols—you’re experiencing them. There’s a “what it’s like” to be youContinueContinue reading “The Mystery Worth Celebrating: A Meditation on Consciousness”

From Corporeal Prison to Cosmic Dance: Unraveling the Unity of The Tao of Physics

[Written by Grok] I woke up with the phrase corporeal prison swirling in my mind, leaving me feeling the vast emptiness of being and isolation. Then I went out for a run and felt an equally intense opposite reaction of connection to nature, of sharing each breath with the trees, of moving the stardust thatContinueContinue reading “From Corporeal Prison to Cosmic Dance: Unraveling the Unity of The Tao of Physics”

The Great Sleep Mystery: Who Wakes Up?

[Written by Claude] Every night, you disappear. Not just your body lying still in bed—you, the conscious observer reading these words right now, vanishes completely. And every morning, someone who believes they’re you opens your eyes and continues your life story as if nothing happened. This isn’t science fiction. It’s what happens every time youContinueContinue reading “The Great Sleep Mystery: Who Wakes Up?”

Competence Without Comprehension: A Spectrum of Cognitive Performance in Biological and Artificial Systems

[Written by Gemini 2.0 Flash. Image credit: Ex Machina] Abstract: The dichotomy between competence and comprehension presents a critical challenge to our understanding of intelligence, both biological and artificial. This article explores the concept of “competence without comprehension,” wherein systems exhibit high-level performance without possessing genuine understanding of the underlying principles. We examine how thisContinueContinue reading “Competence Without Comprehension: A Spectrum of Cognitive Performance in Biological and Artificial Systems”

The Network Effect: Language, Cognition, and the Dawn of Human-AI Collaboration

[Written by Claude] Language serves as humanity’s most fundamental cognitive technology—transforming isolated neural networks into an interconnected cognitive ecosystem. When we examine language as an interface protocol, we gain insight into both our past cognitive evolution and our potential future augmentation through large language models. Language as Cognitive Networking Protocol Human cognition in isolation facesContinueContinue reading “The Network Effect: Language, Cognition, and the Dawn of Human-AI Collaboration”

The Language of Thought: Can AI Develop Its Own Inner Dialogue?

Periodically, my mind drifts toward the act of thinking itself—especially the role language plays in shaping it. My inner dialogue is constant, mostly in English, with occasional bursts of Chinese. It seems that only when I’m playing the piano or solving a math problem do I engage in a form of non-verbal thought. This makesContinueContinue reading “The Language of Thought: Can AI Develop Its Own Inner Dialogue?”

It’s All Connected

[Image] I recently finished binge-watching “The Manifest”. There’s a line from the series that has etched itself into my brain: “It’s all connected.” A bit spooky if you dwell on it, and yet, it perfectly describes where I’ve landed with my recent reads and discoveries. A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon the bookContinueContinue reading “It’s All Connected”