Freedom is Slavery: from the bottom up and the inside out

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

Dennett, Daniel C., 2003, _Freedom Evolves_, Viking, New York.

    ...Not a single one of the cells that compose you knows who
    you are, or cares.
    
    Each trillion-robot team is gathered together in a breathtakingly
    efficient regime that has no dictator but manages to keep itself
    organized to repel outsiders, banish the weak, enforce iron rules
    of discipline- and serve as the headquarters of our conscious
    self, one mind. These communities of cells are fascistic in the
    extreme, but "your" interests and values have little to do with
    the limited goals of the cells that compose you- fortunately. Some
    people are gentle and generous, others are ruthless; some are 
    pornographers and others devote their lives to the service of God.
    it has been tempting over the ages to to imagine that these
    striking differences must be due to the special features of some
    "extra" thing (a soul) installed somehow in the bodily headquarters.

    ...The more we learn about how we evolved, and how our brains
    work, the more certain we are becoming that there is no such
    extra ingredient. We are each "made" of mindless robots and
    nothing else, no non-physical, non-robotic ingredients at all. The
    differences among people are all due to the way their particular
    robotic teams are put together, over a lifetime of growth and
    experience. The difference between speaking French and Chinese
    is a difference in the organization of the working parts, and so
    are all the other differences of knowledge and personality. (p.2)

Of course I despise Dennett. He is , however, an ally in the great battle
against superstition and ignorance.

respectfully