Thomas metzinger YOU don’t exist!

[theoneandnone]

The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self is a book by philosopher and cognitive scientist Thomas Metzinger.

The central claim of the book is that no such thing as a "self" exists as an independent entity. Instead, the conscious self is the content of a model created by our brain, which he terms the "phenomenal self" or "self-model."

Key ideas include:

• The Ego Tunnel Metaphor: Conscious experience is like a "tunnel" because it is an extremely selective and internal construct created by the brain. We only perceive a small fraction of what actually exists in the richer physical reality, and we look "right through" this model without realizing it is a model (it is transparent).

• Virtual Self in Virtual Reality: Everything we experience, including our sense of self, is a "virtual self in a virtual reality" created by our neural processes.

• The Brain as an "Ego Machine": The brain constructs a model of the world, and within this world-model, it places a model of the organism—the self-model—which we experience as "I" or the Ego.

• Evidence from Neuroscience: Metzinger draws on neuroscientific evidence, including research on out-of-body experiences, lucid dreaming, phantom limbs, brain disorders, and virtual reality experiments, to argue that our sense of self is a construct that can be manipulated or shown to be illusory.

• Implications: If the self is not "real," the book raises questions about concepts like free will, personal autonomy, moral accountability, and the future ethical challenges of manipulating conscious states (neuroethics).

YOU DON’T EXIST FREE WILL IS AN ILLUSION