Constructing Consciousness: A Hallucinatory Reality

Your brain is actively hallucinating your conscious reality right now. It starts with retinal

cells that only fire for edges and contrast, then splits that data into separate

pathways just to figure out what something is versus where it is. You aren't a camera

recording the world; you are a constructivist building it based on past expectations. It gets crazier

because your cognition actually extends outside your body into your environment. And that voice in

your head? According to the Higher-Order Thought theory, you are only conscious

because you can think about your own thoughts. Otherwise, you’re just a biological

robot on autopilot.