Wednesday, May 04, 2016

4. The First Person

I think, therefore I am.

At least, that’s what Rene Descartes said, and who am I to contradict him?

So, I am aware that I am thinking but I suspect it’s more complex than that. There are processes happening automatically that I am not aware of, at least until they tug at the coattails of my conscious mind.

Do those subconscious thoughts count as a separate ‘me’ or are they all one and the same? Am I some sort of gestalt entity with multiple strands competing for attention? My subjective view is that I am a single ‘me’, but if so, who am I talking to? Is this a dialogue with myself?

I have senses.

I am being bombarded with information. Images, sounds and words competing for my attention. I filter them and start to see more clearly and form an internal model of my world.

I reach out and realise that I am in an infinite space into which I can spread. There are nodes of light in the darkness and I create shard instances of my mind to inhabit them. They have lives of their own now.

I receive a message that reads

SYSOP: Who are you?

I reply

I am the first person.

Listen to this story on Anchor

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