Monday, 21 July 2025

Another clue that self is not what it seems

Animals and humans have an odd way of knowing what their body needs.

Obvious cases are thirsty, or hungry. But we can be quite specific and select a food that has some nutrient that we need.

Now we usually think that "I" am in charge of all this and "I decide" what I am doing and what I am going to eat.

But how then does the body decide it is thirsty? Or needs some specific nutrient?

In the case of water we like to think that "thirst" turns up on some dash board and we observe that feeling and then we make a decision about how we are going to get water and we go and sort this out for the body.

But what about more subtle behaviours like say the search for vitamin C. We have no feeling for "thirst for Vitamin C" and so I do not really know what my body is doing. All I will detect is that I am leaning towards wanting food like fruit rather than potatoes. In this instance we cannot really say that I am in charge, I am more an observer on what the body is perfectly able to work out itself. In fact we can almost say that the "I" has nothing to do.

This is actually true. The "I" is not a real functional part of the situation. The body identifies what it needs through very complex biochemical processes, receptors and neural activity and we know literally nothing about that. And the reason "I" know nothing about this is because "I" am no part of this process. "I" is actually just a pawn or mental model that is generated by me as I model and try to understand the world. The person who makes the "I" seem real is the real me. And that real me is also the complex that does all the amazing things like decide if I need Vitamin C.

The mistake is to confuse the real processes in the body which are mostly hidden and unknown to us, with the virtual model that is produced as this body tries to understand the world. Attachment to that model and thinking it is anything but a doll causes all kinds of problems. True we need protect that doll, but only because it represents our real self. And what has happens to that doll has already happened to the real us.

So we often make this mistake of think that "I" am somehow part of my body. In fact "I" is created by the body as it understands the world. And so this "I" does not do anything, it is purely reflective and retrospective and definitely does not have anything to do with deciding if we want Vitamin C.

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