This conversation reminds me of a novel by Peter Watts that's free online called Blindsight. The term refers to the ability of some blind people to avoid obstacles they can't consciously see; their eyes are intact enough for vision, but the neural apparatus for processing what their eyes perceive that they aren't aware of what they 'see'.
In the novel it turns out that although intelligent life is fairly abundant, consciousness is an anomaly. The concept is so confusing to the aliens that they interpret human broadcasts as an attempt to drain their communications bandwidth because what we're communicating (art, identity, and the like) makes no sense at all. The book moves from a First Contact novel to cosmic horror as the narrator realizes that unconscious intelligence is biologically more successful than the human kind.
Gae Bolga's comments made me think of this fictional example of intelligent species that are rational but don't rationalize.
In the novel it turns out that although intelligent life is fairly abundant, consciousness is an anomaly. The concept is so confusing to the aliens that they interpret human broadcasts as an attempt to drain their communications bandwidth because what we're communicating (art, identity, and the like) makes no sense at all. The book moves from a First Contact novel to cosmic horror as the narrator realizes that unconscious intelligence is biologically more successful than the human kind.
Gae Bolga's comments made me think of this fictional example of intelligent species that are rational but don't rationalize.
I'm not anti-Christian. I'm anti-stupid.
