this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2026
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I do subscribe to a small comfort belief that our consciousness isn't just encoded in our neurons but has a radiative component that constructively/destructively interferes with the environment on some small level we atttibute to random events, and that when we die, we sever only the somatic component of our consciousness but our radiative part lives on encoded into a wider network of ambient thought.
Sort of like ghosts/an afterlife, but less moaning and chain rattling and more general vibing the emotion of a park bench from the overlapped thought networks that ever intersected it
Might be in the wrong sub...
I think consciousness is more than just our neurons, it's an active waveform riding and guided by them.
Unfortunately, I don't think it survives death. Without the underlying structure, it collapses to noise.
Interestingly, our brains have special circuits, design to emulate others. In effect, our consciousness imprints onto theirs. It's not the full pattern, and imperfect, but a part of us lives on in the consciousness of everyone who knows us.
Like ripples in a pond. The water of the initial wave is no longer involved, but it has passed to others.
I think this is a far better explained version of what I'm yammering on about. Echoes of yourself living on in other conscious beings, fragmented 1000fold into the general aether of all those you've interacted with
It's useful to understand the mechanisms, it helps you to understand both what it can do, and its limitations. E.g. they can only mirror the parts they see or talk about. The parts of yourself that you hide away will be lost from their imperfect model.
For more info, it generally falls under "mirror neurons". They help us empathise with others. E.g. when we smile, certain mirror neurons start firing. When we see someone smile, the same ones fire. We feel the appropriate emotions because of this. They also fire preemptively. E.g. when you hear your mother yelling about the mess, even though you've lived alone for a decade.
Ah right. I guess I'm sort of implying that the hidden parts are also imprinted somehow too, through a vague hand-wavey mechanism that I've yet to define
I think you had the better version straight out of the gate.