I am not sentient

From: fudley (fuddley@fastmail.fm)
Date: Sat May 29 2004 - 23:52:13 MDT


It's a little embarrassing to admit this but I'm handicapped. When I was
3 years old I fell off my tricycle and hit my head, I wasn't badly hurt
physically but it rendered me permanently non-sentient. I think I've done
a good job overcoming my disability, I do pretty well on IQ tests if I do
say so myself, I earn a good living, I have friends, I laugh and cry just
like anybody else, in fact I've done such a good job overcoming my
handicap that nobody has ever guesses that I'm no more conscious than a
rock. When I was younger I assumed I was the only human in this condition
but now that I come to think (thinking has nothing to do with
consciousness remember, I’ve hears members of this list say so) about it,
if somebody else was as good at this charade as I am there would be no
way I could tell.

Perhaps there are even people who are non-sentient but don't know it,
they think they know what consciousness is, but really it's like the
difference between a firefly and a supernova, they have no hint of the
immense and glorious feeling of sentience that most other people have but
they do not. This is all speculation of course; I wouldn't know anything
about it, as I said I'm smart as a whip but no more conscious than sack
full of door knobs. I envy you conscious beings. I think.

        John K Clark

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