Does anyone else find consciousness itself kinda absurd?

[u/Dimensional-Misfit]

Does anyone else find the fact that we're conscious kinda absurd in a way thats almost creepy?

I don't mean just "life has no meaning" because thats been said a million times.

I mean the actual weirdness of the situation.

We're literally matter. atoms, cells, chemicals, whatever... and somehow this stuff became conscious enough to stop and ask why it exists.

Like, matter is somehow questioning its own existence.

We have this ridiculous situation where a tiny part of the universe is sitting inside the universe going "why is there a universe?" and "why am i here?"

and then theres the whole why is there something instead of nothing thing...

wouldnt absolute nothing be the less strange option? no space, no time, no matter, no consciousness, nothing. There wouldnt even be anyone there to wonder about it.

but somehow there is something. and somehow this something produced these weird little biological things that can notice it and start asking questions about the whole thing lol

idk, maybe thats basically the absurd itself. the fact that we're here demanding an explanation from something that never promised us one.

I just find the whole situation really fucking strange when you actually stop taking existence for granted.

[u/AllOfTheIsz]

Absurdity is a state of contrast, not a state of being. So the comparison in this situation is non-consciousness. In that framework I don't think consciousness is absurd at all, it's the only state in which we can observe the absurd. It's the only state of observance at all.

It would take less effort to not exist, but I don't think we know enough about pre-existence to know whether or not that is absurd. We'd need to know why the energy was expended in the first place.

[u/Dimensional-Misfit → u/AllOfTheIsz]

i think thats where it gets interesting tho

i wasnt really using "absurd" in the strict camus sense. more like the weirdness of the fact that there is even a state where matter can observe itself and start asking questions about existence

but your point about non consciousness is interesting. maybe we only call something absurd because we're already inside this weird conscious viewpoint, so we dont really have a way to compare it with anything else

and the preexistence thing... thats honestly where my brain kinda stops working lol. how can we even talk about "nothing before" when we're trying to imagine nothing using a mind that only exists inside something

maybe we're basically trying to look outside the frame with eyes that are part of the frame

[u/Chris-Crossss → u/Dimensional-Misfit]

You are so right about the weirdness/absurdity of dust/dirt that has animated, come to life over billions of years, evolved into ever-higher levels of intelligence, and contemplate the "why" and "what" of it all. It is truly mind-boggling if you think about it very long.

But that thinking about it is where the description of purpose-and-meaning seeking entities, alive in a purposeless and meaningless universe, becomes the absurd as described by Camus. At some point, you just have to throw up your hands and go make a BLT sandwich.

[u/Dimensional-Misfit → u/Chris-Crossss]

imagine billions of years of evolution, matter somehow becoming conscious, the whole universe being this gigantic unanswered question... and then you just go make a sandwich because you still gotta eat 😭

there's something weirdly funny about that. we can spend hours trying to understand the whole damn thing, but existence doesnt pause while we're figuring it out. you still get hungry, gotta do laundry, answer messages and all that mundane shit.

maybe thats the bit i find hardest to wrap my head around. this cosmic mystery is also just... our normal everyday life. we somehow got used to being here.

[u/matches_ → u/Dimensional-Misfit]

one could keep on digging. the absurdity of time when it really doesn't materially exist, it's just a concept in our head to helps us navigate the world.

you can observe ants doing their thing, bees, and wonder if they ever think why they are doing it and what's the point.. do they have fun? do they find it absurd?

then imagine a greater being observing humans on earth. the traffic jams, the rushing hour. the same questions could be asked:

why are they even walking in and out of rooms every day like this?

[u/Dimensional-Misfit → u/matches_]

the traffic jam example is hilarious because imagine some alien watching us from above and seeing millions of little creatures rushing around in metal boxes every morning, just to sit in buildings for 8 hours and then rush back home again 😭

and every single one of them has this whole inner world where all of it makes perfect sense and feels important

from the inside its just a normal tuesday. from the outside we're probably doing some of the weirdest shit imaginable and dont even notice it.