What is my consciousness "like"?
Multiple-choice test devised from interviews 2006-2015 into a performance of user-activated reading-of-self processed through a social and aesthetic interface.
When are you conscious?
While my soul or energy lives in my body
When I am thinking and feeling that I am conscious
Whenever I am awake
While my brain is alive
If there was a novel of my life, the "perspective" would be written in:
Third person, past tense ("They saw red, felt their nerves harden into wire...")
First person, present tense ("I am walking and I begin to smell...")
Third person omniscient, past tense ("Clyde walked swiftly, their nose reddening in the cold...")
Stream of consciousness ("Torn pieces of red flutter down like ash...")
Who understands your consciousness?
Only me; what it feels like to be me will never be known to anyone else
Eventually everyone, neuroscience will explain what it is and how it functions
Everyone; consciousness is experienced very similarly by all conscious beings
Not even me; consciousness is a vast force beyond any of us
How do you know you are conscious?
My ability to function is a result of my conscious decision-making
I have memories, a narrative or story, of my self and my life
I am not conscious, but my brain has evolved to make me feel like I am
I am connected to a larger, more intrinsic substance of consciousness-as-itself
Who experiences your consciousness?
No one; I feel that I am conscious but this subjective experience does not represent how the brain actually works
All living and even some "nonliving" being-states
My self, this self senses and perceives my particular consciousness
My body, including my brain, produces the experiential phenomenon of consciousness
How does consciousness relate to your body?
My consciousness helps me adapt my body and my behavior to environments
Consciousness is an illusion generated as a byproduct of my body's physiobiology
Consciousness is an evolutionary state shared by most if not all bodies
My body is just the vehicle where my consciousness sleeps
Are you ever not conscious?
Yes, when I am not sensing or perceiving my own consciousness
No, but when I'm meditating or sleeping, for example, I have different states of consciousness
Impossible to answer; consciousness is a human concept that we only experience as a physical reality
No never, all the universe is in a state of perpetual consciousness
what is "red"?
an essential property of material reality (redness is something)
a word used to label some functional information (i.e. identifying poisonous food)
a subjective (observer-relative) relationship with an autonomous linguistic concept
a conceptual example of how we communicate beyond material reality
What does consciousness do?
It connects us to something larger
It makes us aware of the forces of nature
Externalizes internal states
It projects a sphere of subjective experience