I recently finished reading a book called “In Search of the Miraculous” by P.D. Ouspensky- a Russian philosopher. One of the fundamental points of the book is the ‘mechanical’ nature of man, and of all things- according to the author, the only real difference between a car or a computer and us is that we are made of organic matter and the car or computer is made of inorganic matter.
He even goes so far as to say that we are not conscious in the true sense of the term. How can machines be conscious, after all?
Attaining “consciousness” is possible- according to him, but it is extremely difficult.
He says that people are simply marionettes, who believe themselves to be ‘free’ because they cannot see their strings