The whole collection · No. 30 of 36
For anyone who’s ever said “I know how you feel”.
In 1974 Thomas Nagel said a creature is conscious if there’s “something that it is like to be that organism”. Imagining yourself with webbed arms, hanging upside down in an attic, only tells you what it would be like for you. “I want to know what it is like for a bat to be a bat.”
You’re a bat in the dark. Chirp to find your way, and catch three moths.
You can know a great deal about how someone else’s world works and still not know what it’s like from the inside. Imagining yourself in their place mostly tells you about you.
Ask yourself. What is this like for someone whose world isn’t built like yours?
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Most people skip this. The ones who don’t are the ones it changes.
That’s the whole collection examined, every room. Now imagine doing this with your own life, for a year, with two people who come to know it well. That’s membership.