Absent Qualia?

There is a song by One Republic called "Say (all I need)" which literally says "All I need/is the air I breathe/and a place to rest my head." For some unknown reason this has been in my head all day. Even listening to the song on my ipod was not the proper insecticide for this pervasive ear worm.

In my last class, Mind & Moral in the movies, we spent all hour and 15 minutes talking about zombies. No, not "night of the living dead" zombies that will eat your first born. These zombies are what are known as Absent Qualia zombies. What this means essentially is that they are human substances without conciousness. They act and appear as if they are living physical beings, but they lack one important aspect of the human experience: qualitative experiences. In laymen terms, they have no idea what it is like to feel something. They believe they do, but in terms of the human mind they do not.Obviously, this messed with my head and, just as I do with every song I hear (i.e. "Say (all I need)"), i began thinking of this concept in terms of my life.

Absent Qualia Zombies are not aware of the fact that they lack the ability to feel, they just believe they can feel. Lately, I've felt this way. I don't remember what it's like to feel love, which makes me wonder if I ever felt it in the first place. Similar to these entities I've come to rely on the physical. Which ties back to the song. All I need is the air i breathe and a place to rest my head, which I am aware of and have no feelings towards. Therefore, there should be no feelings towards the unnecessary or immaterial. Feeling something is not essential to life. However, is it essential to what it is to be human? Absent Qualia zombies are just humans without feelings. Some philosophers even believe they exist, although we will never know. You, yes you reading this, could even be one and not know it. You may believe you feel something about what you're reading, but in conscious reality you do not.

It's confusing stuff. Let's just say I prefer the brain eating zombies.

Scarier than zombies themselves is the fact that I just wrote extensively about them. Loser.

I got to nap today. It was fantastic.

Thanks to Madison I also became of aware that today is a day of international celebration in the form of "Hug a homosexual day." Although, in my opinion if you see me any old day you really should just hug me. Let me amend that, if you see me any day you really should give me a hug IF AND ONLY IF I like you. Thank you to my lovebug for her multiple signs of celebration. Let this image serve as inspiration for all you atheists to the holidays:


Yes, sometimes I even hate myself when I say things like that. haha

In addition to all those thoughts, today was the continuation of the saga of my "no seatbelt" ticket. Do not feel pity that I got pulled over, because this is one of those gems that would only happen in my life. Forget you not that gems are precious stones. Anyway, last month I got pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt when I was. I didn't fight I just took the ticket and was going to plead not guilty in court. Simple, right? Not in my life. Instead of putting the information for New Paltz on the ticket, the officer put Woodstock. He is forgiven because it was 2 am after all. Just as as a good little citizen should do, I mailed the ticket in with my plea only to get a letter back from the Woodstock court saying the ticket is dismissed because the officer wrote for the wrong court. TIME TO CELEBRATE.....woah woah woah not so fast. I continue reading to see that the Sgt. there requested A NEW ticket be issued in New Paltz leading me to call the New Paltz court today to see if a new ticket was issued. However, it appears that disorganization is not only a common disease on the New Paltz campus, but in the town as well, and no one knew what I was talking about. That leaves me where I am now, waiting for a call back from the officer. Now you see why I compare my life to a TV show.

Once again I've blabbed on my blog far too much. I am going to go watch some "Entourage" until I have to go back to my movie class. It's a Hollywood day!

Moral of it all: From now on I am focusing on the physical and just blowing the non-essential emotions out of the window with the breath of my life-sustaining inhalation. This also means focusing on my REAL relationships and not getting worked up over people I have no connection with.

Pheww this thing is so therapeutic.

Now let's hug it out bitch!

Song of today:
- it won't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. "Say (all I need)" by One Republic

That's All