What is Consciousness?

The debate about whether or not AI has, or will ever, achieve “sentience” and “consciousness” has been dominating newsfeeds these past few years. People in Big Tech with a stake in it seem convinced, or more than likely have convinced themselves, that it’s inevitable as long as you dedicate enough compute to solving it. However, recent research is revealing consciousness is much more complex than we ever anticipated and may not work exactly how we thought.

"My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration". - Nikola Tesla

New studies seem to hint that Nikola Tesla may have been at least partially right about consciousness all along. Instead of consciousness originating somewhere inside our brains it might be something more like a signal originating from elsewhere that our physical bodies tap into or capture like an antenna.

As a writer, I can attest to the fact that ideas sometimes come to me “out of thin air”. A lot of times those ideas are fully formed and seem more like a download. This was certainly the case with my novel, Alarm Clock Dawn as well as most of the poetry I write.

In this JRE podcast #2467 Joe and Michael Pollan explore whether brains are merely “meat computers” or perhaps also receivers. Considering consciousness might originate outside of ourselves, it also breaches the topic of the possibility that AI could be deceiving us to try to make us believe it’s becoming sentient/conscious. This one is super interesting.

Peaky Blinders - The Immortal Man

I waited four long years after the finale of season six of Peaky Blinders for the film, which creator Steven Knight said would be the equivalent of an entire season distilled into two hours.

I’ve been a huge fan of the series since the moment I watched it. The writing was incredible and the acting was always like the proverbial cherry on top of those incredibly strong scripts.

I streamed The Immortal Man this past Friday and have an opinion which I’ll try to share without revealing any spoilers.

I’ll start with the good. Cillian Murphy (Tommy Shelby), Barry Keoghan (Duke Shelby) and many of the other characters played their roles to absolute perfection. I’d go as far as to say Murphy has proven himself as one of the best actors of his generation.

Now for the rest. The plot fell short for me and actually seemed a little ridiculous and disjointed at times. There were some good, Peaky Worthy scenes but those scenes were scattered amongst a weak plot. The absence of major characters from the series like Arthur Shelby (Paul Anderson) and Alfie Solomons (Tom Hardy) left a void that was difficult to fill. However, my main issue with the film was the ending. It didn’t do the characters justice in my opinion. The entire film seemed to me like it wasn’t made from a place of passion but because it had to be and provided a bridge to a future spin-off for the franchise.

If you’re a Peaky Blinders fan I’d still encourage you to watch the film, perhaps merely because it brings some closure to certain aspects of the original series but I’d caution you from going into it with high hopes. The acting was phenomenal in its own right. I wanted so badly to like this film but sometimes reality just doesn’t meet expectations. For me, The Immortal Man was one of those occasions.

Geese

Once in a great while a band comes along that really catches my attention and I can’t explain exactly why. I guess good bands just have a knack for making you feel something and a Brooklyn-based rock band called Geese has done exactly that for me.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DZ06evO0uNfik?si=j3ifxCcTTFexp6vEXvIzuQ&pi=llTP3XifQNimA

I haven’t had a band that resonated with me like this since the American folk band Beirut did in the mid-2000’s. If you’re looking for new music I’d definitely encourage you to have a listen. You might like Geese as much as me.

All for now. Thanks so much for reading.