From 40347f5622c41eab5cde6425d7e4cbd8183f8df5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kai Stevenson <kai@kaistevenson.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2024 22:12:19 -0800
Subject: updated hard problem article

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 	the only reasonable belief, and intrinsically, fatally flawed. In doing so, I hope to enable the reader to share in my
 	frustration as it concerns this unsolveable problem.
 </p>
-<h2>Analogy</h2>
-<p>
-	Consider reading my essay concerning <a href="analogy.php">analogies</a> prior to continuing this article.
-</p>
 <h2>The Brain</h2>
 <p>
 	Defining consciousness is itself no easy task. The term has been used by various authors in various ways, and each of
@@ -33,7 +29,7 @@ require($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/header.php");
 	It is the opinion of some authors that this description of the brain minimizes human agency. I reject this--human agency
 	is itself a product of the process I have described, and cannot be minimized by a description of its origin. The reason for
 	this concern can likely be ascribed to the long-standing belief in some form of <i>soul</i>, or other intangible, immeasurable
-	entity separate from the mechanical processes of the brain. 
+	entity separate from the mechanical processes of the brain. <b>The brain evidently determines behaviour.</b>
 </p>
 <h2>The Soul</h2>
 <p>
@@ -44,12 +40,34 @@ require($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"] . "/header.php");
 	or godliness; created at conception, or repurposed, from some prior incarnation in rebirth; or whether it is located in the
 	heart, or in the pineal gland--the soul is a concept that has been invented by multiple independant cultures over
 	human history, and is deeply important to the philosophy and religion of a significant portion of those alive today.
+	The specific reason for the prevalence of a belief in the soul is easily ascribed to humans' perception of ourselves
+	as conscious, and a desire to understand the origin and nature of that consciousness.
+	<b>The soul evidently determines behaviour.</b>
 </p>
 <h2>The Problem</h2>
 <p>
 	If the brain adequately explains human psychology, if thoughts are merely specific patterns of neurons firing,
 	it seems that there is no place for the soul in modern science.
 </p>
+<h2>(There isn't) An Analogy</h2>
+<p>
+	Consider reading my essay concerning <a href="analogy.php">analogies</a> prior to continuing this article.
+	Philosophers, and those experiencing existential crises, have frequently referenced a set of thought experiments concerning
+	a common theme: that the consensus material world may not be <i>real</i>, or, more precisely, that it may not be the base stratum
+	of objectivity. Possibly the first record of this concern was René Descartes's <i>evil demon</i> argument, which posits that
+	one's senses may be an illusion created by some malevolent agent--an all powerful demon capable of inducing to you any sensory
+	perception he chooses. A more modern phrasing is the <i>brain in a jar</i> scenario. In this case, some future technology
+	enables the brain to be suspended and kept living inside of an artificial environment. This brain is precisely stimulated
+	by computer, generating a simulated perception of a reality, which could be entirely different from the one the brain is
+	located in. Other, analogous arguments include the <i>Boltzmann Brain</i>, the simulation hypothesis, and certain interpretations
+	of hell, heaven, and purgatory.
+</p>
+<p>
+	Consider these arguments. They are irrefutable--we must live as though they are false, but we cannot prove that they are. We can,
+	however, take one important point from them: regardless of what specific reality we may interpret, and what specific reality may
+	truly exist, it is evident that we have an acute sense of our own existence as some form of entity; it is unclear whether we are being
+	tricked, but it is clear that there is something to <i>be</i> tricked.
+</p>
 <h2>Thought Experiment</h2>
 <p>
 	Suppose we had access to some form of device capable of precisely measuring the exact state of every neuron and neurotransmitter
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