cf. buddhism
This is sort of a follow-up to this post but more like a different development. I linked the story to more people today and we got to talking about happiness states. I voiced the following hypothesis that has been jumping around in my head for a while:
"If we achieve (permanently) a completely euphoric state, we cease to be conscious."
This led to a rather lengthy discussion, wherein (among other things) we attempted to formally reason that out... but no conclusion was reached, as expected. I had to come up with a definition of consciousness to be able to talk usefully, which went as follows: a conscious being is one that thinks about its own thought process.
I'm curious if having more than three pairs of eyes looking at this question can tie it up meaningfully.
"If we achieve (permanently) a completely euphoric state, we cease to be conscious."
This led to a rather lengthy discussion, wherein (among other things) we attempted to formally reason that out... but no conclusion was reached, as expected. I had to come up with a definition of consciousness to be able to talk usefully, which went as follows: a conscious being is one that thinks about its own thought process.
I'm curious if having more than three pairs of eyes looking at this question can tie it up meaningfully.