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Panic_Lobster comments on Open thread, July 23-29, 2013 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Just finished reading Neuropath by Scott Bakker. It deals with a radical vision of the reductionistic nature of consciousness, intentionality and personhood and now stands alongside Greg Egan's Permutation City and Diaspora as one of the most philosophically shocking books I have read.
I really don't recommend it to anyone who hasn't been very strongly innoculated against Existential Angst.
If Mitchell Porter has read it or is familiar with Bakker's ideas from other sources I'd be interested in hearing his thoughts, as the philsophy of Neuropath really challenges the credibility of any form of realism regarding qualia.
Perhaps you would like to post this in the latest (July 2013) media thread? When I wonder what book to read next, I might look through the media threads, but not the open threads...
Okay, I did it. http://lesswrong.com/lw/hvc/july_2013_media_thread/9glb
Okay, I will be sure to do that next time - but I don't see a reason to start a second thread on Neuropath over there right now. If a mod wants to move this thread over there, that's cool.
You just got a good reason for starting a second thread, and I don't think mods can move comment threads (at least not with a reasonable amount of effort).
I get the description of Permutation City as shocking (I remember when a friend I lent the book to called me up in the middle of the day when he got to one of the wham sentences) but what in Diaspora was shocking?
I might have missed something in Neuropath. What I got from it was mostly a technotriller plot using near-future brain surgery to give people creepier versions of the sorts of Oliver Sacks delusions people already get when they get brain damage. The possibility of doing this doesn't seem like a very radical thesis if you already take it as given that the brain runs on physics.
I'd agree with the description of Permutation City as philosophically shocking, it had a very strange core idea in it that still wasn't obviously wrong.
Jryy gur fubpxvat vqrn va Arhebcngu vf gung bhe 'srryvatf' bs univat serr jvyy, bs univat zbeny vaghvgvbaf, bs orvat n fhowrpg jvgu 'dhnyvn' naq bs univat vagragvbanyvgl (cersreraprf, oryvrsf, tbnyf, rgp.) ner whfg xvaqf bs angheny nabfbtabfvnf, dhvexf bs irel fcrpvsvp naq sentvyr arhebculfvbybtvpny qrsvpvgf unaqrq gb hf ol ribyhgvbanel nppvqrag - naq gung rira fznyy inevngvbaf va zvaq qrfvta fcnpr jvyy bzvg gurfr guvatf pbzcyrgryl.
Cbfguhznaf znl irel jryy unir ab 'rkcrevrapr bs dhnyvn' be bs 'serr jvyy' be rira bs orvat vagragvbany flfgrzf - naq guvf jbhyq or qhr abg gb cngubybtl ohg gb qrfvta hctenqrf bire gur jrgjner cebivqrq ol ribyhgvba. Fb ba guvf gurbel, gur cvpgher bs gur shgher tvira va Qvnfcben sbe vafgnapr, jurer cbfguhznaf unir svefg crefba crefcrpgvirf naq fhowrpgvivgl pbhyq or frra nf anviryl bcgvzvfgvp naguebcbzbecuvfz.
Have you read Blindsight? It explicitly mentions this idea, and is generally very nice.
If by "nice" you mean "a good book" then I agree.
Not coincidentally, that is the next novel on my summer reading list.
Vg frrzf vapbafvfgrag gb qrfpevor gur rkpvfvat bs svefg-crefba fhowrpgvivgl nf na hctenqr juvyr nyfb pnyyvat cerqvpgvbaf bs vgf pbagvahrq rkvfgrapr bcgvzvfgvp. (Gubhtu znlor gung'f jul lbh hfrq gur 'anvir' dhnyvsvre?)
Vf gur fpranevb bar jurer jr'q cersre gb xrrc svefg-crefba fhowrpgvivgl, ohg jr'er sbeprq gb tvir vg hc qhr gb fbzr bgure pbafgenvag?