Who's there?
How does consciousness behave in combinations? If we imagine a process that makes it possible for two sentient beings to completely fuse together, becoming the same awareness, would such an act maintain two separable consciousnesses? Â Or could there only ever be one new consciousness, possibly more different from the two first beings than they were from each other? Some theoretical neuroscientists argue that consciousness is in part defined by being unified and discrete. They imagine consciousness as particles or magnets that form clumps of information, which then draw in further particles of information. Â This model might define two beings fused into one as further aggregations of information, yielding a single new consciousness.
We might ask, Can this concept of consciousness be used to test for consciousness?  For example, if I can "join" the internet and then leave it, does this mean the internet is not yet conscious?  We might also ask, If consciousness is in part defined by separation, does this mean that being sentient beings actually separates us from the state of the rest of the universe (perhaps one other large consciousness)?  This would suggest that our sentience,  long perceived as a unique gift, might actually be a perverse punishment, separating each human from each other, and each sentience from all other things.  As though existentialism were part of the math of being someone. 26
