{"id":2534,"date":"2025-10-27T01:15:54","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T01:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/charlespauljones.com\/?p=2534"},"modified":"2025-10-27T01:36:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T01:36:20","slug":"the-mirror-of-the-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/charlespauljones.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/27\/the-mirror-of-the-self\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mirror of the Self"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"2534\" class=\"elementor elementor-2534\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-750ad3c9 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"750ad3c9\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7463b94a elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"7463b94a\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n<p><em>(or: Lanterns and Algorithms)<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p><\/p>\n<p>I feel that I am a remarkably aware human being. I think so as well.<br \/>Cynical Gemini duality, perhaps \u2014 but I see not only\u00a0<em>degrees<\/em>\u00a0of awareness, I see\u00a0<em>flavors<\/em> of it. \u201cSelf\u201d awareness is just one of the tastier awareness treats.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s morning reflections brought these thoughts I\u2019d like to share with you.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>I walk through my life looking for enlightened beings, those people I would describe as <em>truly<\/em> self-aware, people whose consciousness hums audibly in their presence. They radiate an expressive creativity simply because they <em>are<\/em> creativity itself. Their awareness leaks into everything they touch. I like it when creativity drips from their very pores, like cold sweat off a nightmare&#8217;s forehead. Whether or not I care much for the finished result of their creativity, &#8220;the creation&#8221; doesn&#8217;t even enter into the equation.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><strong>It is not the Crescendo that makes the Symphony; it is the <em>Symphony<\/em><\/strong> <strong>that builds to the<\/strong> <strong><em>Crescendo<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>Much like <strong>Diogenes of Sinope<\/strong> \u2014 that fourth-century wanderer who roamed the world with a <em>lit<\/em> <em>lantern<\/em> in the daylight searching for an \u201chonest man\u201d \u2014 I find myself seeking the same thing: a mirror of myself. A simple reflection for me that proves awareness still exists in the wild.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>After all, the only thing separating us from our primate ancestors is that fragile loop of self-observation Adam Smith described \u2014 the mind\u2019s capacity to step outside itself and say,&#8221;<em>I am watching me&#8230;&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>If we ever surrender even that to algorithms, we immediately devolve. Not backward to the ape, but forward into something <em>post-moral<\/em>: totally efficient, endlessly intelligent, utterly empty of conscience, and as culturally exciting as a dead fish.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>Something that smells, feels, and tastes remarkably like today\u2019s AI.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-c4f461b e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"c4f461b\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2a62cc0 elementor-widget elementor-widget-video\" data-id=\"2a62cc0\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{&quot;youtube_url&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/youtu.be\\\/KGUxRQJQ_Oc&quot;,&quot;video_type&quot;:&quot;youtube&quot;,&quot;controls&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;}\" data-widget_type=\"video.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-wrapper elementor-open-inline\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-video\"><\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(or: Lanterns and Algorithms) I feel that I am a remarkably aware human being. I think so as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"cs-entry","8":"cs-video-wrap"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/charlespauljones.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/charlespauljones.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/charlespauljones.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charlespauljones.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charlespauljones.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2534"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/charlespauljones.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2544,"href":"https:\/\/charlespauljones.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2534\/revisions\/2544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/charlespauljones.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charlespauljones.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charlespauljones.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}