5 May

Say you watch Netflix, the idea is that the show travels from Netflix along the NBN fibres to your house, where you watch it. But actually no show travels anywhere, cut open that fibre and you won't find the show. The show is everywhere from the Netflix server through the fibre to your TV set, all at the same time. Ideas matter - this is what's wrong I think with most of our ideas about communication, and even consciousness. The standard model is messages (or sensations too, for consciousness) travel between one point and another, and back again. But there is no separate message or sensation travelling anywhere. Both communication and consciousness are not things that happen between two or more isolated points. They're an immediate interaction between two or more things, that changes both of them, at the same time. Our 'mind' is not in our head, it's spread across that entire interconnection, just as the Netflix show is across the NBN. To 'communicate' isn't sending messages to another person, it's a physical interaction that shapes you and them, simultaneously.