Sean Carroll

We're not static things.

We're not computer programs that you can turn off and then just fire up again.

We have processes going on beneath the surface.

You remember the conversation we had with Antonio Damasio many years ago here on Mindscape.

He talks about feelings and their homeostatic regulation.

That's a way of saying that the body and the mind, which is generated by the body, have a way they want to be, have states that they want to be in, and we gradually drift away from those states and the body and the mind try to pull us back to those states, much like a thermostat does homeostatic regulation.

And I think very roughly that this sort of drifting gives rise to these feelings of boredom or tiredness or whatever, and that consciousness very naturally arises through evolution as part of the mechanism by which we work this.

Knowing what state we're in helps us feel like we should work to fix it, to get back to our happy place, our equilibrium, or whatever you want to call it.

So I do think that there's probably, or at least plausibly, I should say, I shouldn't even say probably, what do I know, but plausibly a connection between all those things.

You know, I don't know, you know, poet philosophers are great people, but, you know, they're not greatly known for suggesting falsifiable theories.

So I don't know what the modern version of this is, but it might be roughly on the right track.

I see no reason why not.

Dennis Michael Briggs, a.k.a.

Mike, says, how do you feel about being deepfaked 40 years after your death, a la Richard Feynman?

Well, you know, mostly I don't care.

Like, I'll be dead, right?

It doesn't really bother me.

I think it's silly.

I don't like deepfakes of Richard Feynman either.

Like, it's not the same thing.