Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal The (Terrifying) Theory That Your Thoughts Were Never Your Own
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Jul 22, 2025 Professors Elan Barenholtz and William Hahn dive deep into a radical idea: what if language shapes our thoughts and behavior like an autonomous software? Barenholtz argues that language operates independently in our minds, while Hahn extends this to virtual machines, suggesting consciousness is just one among many running programs. They discuss cognition as a dynamic output rather than mere storage, questioning how concepts like memory and even God could just be tokens in a vast informational system. Their insights challenge our understanding of self and reality.
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Language as Autonomous Organism
- Language is an autonomous informational system running in our brains like software.
- It operates as a self-generating organism that predicts the next token recursively, shaping cognition and behavior.
Language Lacks Consciousness
- Symbolic language itself lacks consciousness because it does not embed sensory qualities.
- Consciousness arises from sensory experience linked to the physical universe, not arbitrary symbols.
Consciousness as Virtual Machines
- Consciousness may be a virtual machine instantiated by brain processes, not a direct brain structure.
- Multiple selves or consciousnesses can coexist as layered software-like entities within the brain.
