Ouroboros is ouroboros.
this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
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The Universe (big thing) pretending to be individuals (small thing)
vs
Atoms (small thing) pretending to be individuals (big thing)
Do you ever just realize that everyone is in space right now? Like, sure, there's an atmosphere, but other than that you're basically out there. The air around you is sky. The vacuum around you is universe. When you take a closer look, there are universes within universes, whole worlds of microbes, like the ones on the very surface of the keyboard I type this on - on the larger scale, ecosystems of stars, being born, evolving and dying - like in a cosmic "firework show". But they don't tend to affect each other, I think. They're so far away...
And then, there's us. We're so small yet so big. Does that make us special or just mediocre? To an ant we are giants, to a star we don't exist. Why does consciousness as we know it only exist in the middle of sizes? Maybe because it's "as we know it", and of course we only really know what things are like at our scale? Maybe sapience is subtle, and it can only be detected when you spend every moment dealing with it. Perhaps atoms are kind of conscious, and brains are the shape they make such that their consciousness field constructively interferes. Idk
So the universe hates itself. This explains a lot.
"Did I stutter?"
"And I am you
And what I see is me..."
Pink Floyd, Echoes
FTFY
Hey guys! I found the giant asshole who is behind both Elon Musk and Donald Trump!
My thought recently has been:
-
The universe is physical, ie made of material stuff. There is just stuff and the forces between stuff
-
Stuff is governed by physical laws
-
The interractions between things are relatively simple, but get much more complex and seemingly ramdom the more stuff you add
-
This seeming randomness is not true randomness because the interractions between things are governed by predictable rules
-
We are made of stuff, down to the neurons in our brains
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Our actions and thoughts are ultimately directly caused by neuronal activity that is (in theory) predictable and governed by laws
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Free will and individuality aren't "real" in the way people typically mean. Our actions are determined entirely by the particles in our system interracting with the constituent parts of other systems.
My conclusion: this doesn't matter on a practical level. We still experience free will and individuality. But those things are illusions caused by the interractions of many complex systems.
Take a look at this and it gives some room for flexibility (from a movie called Waking Life): https://youtu.be/4arOKZvuZK4
Watching this clip back on college is what solidified my love for philosophy.
This is called "determinism"
I love this kind of philosophy. I wish it were possible to access it on a tangible level, but sadly it seems consciousness is local phenomena
I've heard if you take certain hallucinogens you can...
shrooms can make you more empathetic, but in my case it also unlocked a new kind of depression in realizing that so many who need a change of perspective to see things that way, even for but a glimpse, never will. I felt such love and empathy for others in that moment, and such sorrow that it would never be felt nor returned by the vast majority of others; I understood perfectly in that moment what Edgar Mitchell meant by an "instant global consciousness", and how we would likely never achieve this state of enlightenment among enough individuals to matter.
Have you tried DMT?
Twice
Fucking intense
no
Yeah they can make you feel that way especially if you do them with a tight friend, but in reality you're still locked into your own perspective.
Maybe if more people believed we could kind of willingly feel it by proxy. Kind of like how mirror neurons let you simulate the other on your own equipment.
Can confirm that enough magic mushrooms will cause you to see and feel god.
Yeah, but being able to conceive of it is a pretty cool consolation prize at least.
It is :)
WOAH the universe is Gluttony from Fullmetal Alchemist??
Makes dying a lot more comfortable when one realizes its another illusion.
Sort of but not really. Consciousness is intrinsic to a living brain. So while the basic components that we're made out of will continue on until the end of the universe, our time as unique individuals and our experience of it will come to an end. Which is a bummer for us, but that's a natural aversion that all life necessarily shares.
Yeah I think consciousness is evidence in and of itself that the universe can organize into a higher order. It would be conceited to claim that because I obtained consciousness that means I can understand how that higher order functions. My consciousness will never reform exactly how it is now, but that is just a reflection of an ever changing universe.
Well, there's a theory that the Big Bang created both our universe which has an excess of matter and is moving forward through time; and, in the same instant, a mirror universe that has an excess of antimatter and is moving backward through time. So there's a mirror-you who, in a way, lived billions of years before you.
The next question then is: is this a cyclical event?
My personal philosophy on this is that the forces that shaped me and made me who I am will still exist after I'm gone, so it seems inevitable that some version of me will someday recombobulate by pure chance into some variation of what I represent.
that all life necessarily shares.
You're funny! https://www.bbcearth.com/news/the-jellyfish-that-never-dies
Never dies of old age but still can die from trauma, disease, and predation. And like all life it'll naturally want to avoid those things.
Yeah. I think if we deprioritize individual consciousness then it comes easier to swallow (by the conscious mind...).
Obviously you shouldn't deprioritize others' minds. This is just a personal technique/cope.
You can find your own peace through the death of your ego. I wouldn't call it coping, but being in touch with reality. We are all just a piece of a cycle, consciousness is but a beautiful gift of circumstance.
When a Mayan says IN LAKE'CH,
he means I AM ANOTHER YOURSELF.