…So telepathic creatures just blast out thousands of concurrent sensor outputs? That seems bad. Being telepathic sounds like a mess…but I guess they aren’t conscious, so they just react to whatever the fuck happens.
They could just blast out the evolutionary most important signals for living in group. Most of the data from the light receptors in your eyes doesn’t even leave your eyeball, it’s already processed a whole lot. It doesn’t impact seeing, it’s even necessary for it. Same thing I suppose.
I guess natural selection could produce that. Individuals that send out too many irrelevant signals get avoided and those that pare down outgoings reproduce more.
Hmm, but that doesn’t mesh with the original comic about telepaths lacking consciousness. Maybe I need a refresher on the word, but that seems like each sensor is making decisions on its own. So it’s a coaltion of independent cells acting in concert via telepathy?
The comic uses “consciousness” to mean the single consistent stream of consciousness in your mind. You can choose to verbalize it, but it happens whether you want it or not. And it’s very closely related to the language center, even for people who don’t subvocalize. It also isn’t very involved in reasoning and logic etc (though obviously it helps a lot with memory and involving others in your reasoning) https://youtu.be/_TYuTid9a6k
Telepaths maybe would need to be selective in what they share, but not consciously so.
![Consciousness [SMBC]](https://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/1780787893-20260607.png){kind=link}
…So telepathic creatures just blast out thousands of concurrent sensor outputs? That seems bad. Being telepathic sounds like a mess…but I guess they aren’t conscious, so they just react to whatever the fuck happens.
They could just blast out the evolutionary most important signals for living in group. Most of the data from the light receptors in your eyes doesn’t even leave your eyeball, it’s already processed a whole lot. It doesn’t impact seeing, it’s even necessary for it. Same thing I suppose.
I guess natural selection could produce that. Individuals that send out too many irrelevant signals get avoided and those that pare down outgoings reproduce more.
Hmm, but that doesn’t mesh with the original comic about telepaths lacking consciousness. Maybe I need a refresher on the word, but that seems like each sensor is making decisions on its own. So it’s a coaltion of independent cells acting in concert via telepathy?
The comic uses “consciousness” to mean the single consistent stream of consciousness in your mind. You can choose to verbalize it, but it happens whether you want it or not. And it’s very closely related to the language center, even for people who don’t subvocalize. It also isn’t very involved in reasoning and logic etc (though obviously it helps a lot with memory and involving others in your reasoning) https://youtu.be/_TYuTid9a6k
Telepaths maybe would need to be selective in what they share, but not consciously so.
Yes, you also just react to whatever the fuck happens. The only difference is that you don’t perfectly understand why you did what you did.
Speak for yourself. I’m a Stoic with full command over all my reactions, and also an overinflated sense of my own importance because of it.