The Ego Machine portrays what it is like to be human to an enlightened but non-human alien intelligence. The alien does not see appearances. It is blind to make-up, snappy suits, painted nails, flat stomachs and bulging biceps. It cannot distinguish young from old, success from failure. It sees a mechanism akin to a child’s gyroscope darting across a flat featureless landscape until the disc stops spinning.
The mechanism’s form is governed by its function which is the collection and storage of 'me' thoughts. Its constituted of a recording component and a reading component.
Sight and sound enters through a large funnel apparatus which transcribes, with vibrational energy, what is seen and heard onto an impressionable and rapidly spinning disc.
The visual component of what has been recorded is then conveyed to the seat of awareness (the seat of awareness or consciousness inhabits a metal sphere) via an ocular mechanism.
A needle transmits via vibrational energy auditory impressions via an amplifying funnel which feeds into the metal sphere.
Direct awareness of the other in the environment is therefore possible only by seeing and hearing what has been engraved into the spinning disc. The contents of the spinning disc which I can now label 'ego' is a mandatory intermediary processing step in understanding the mechanism's environment. Everything, then, is understood via the ego. The disc continually spins and the ocular mechanism and auditory needle are, for the most part, fixed onto the surface of the disc though both the ocular and needle can be thought to randomly jump the grooves on the surface of the disc. Imagine the maddening cacophony of a phonograph on a yacht in a storm tossed ocean for three score and ten years and you have an inkling of what it is like to be human.
The disc stops spinning periodically, an event which coincides with a regular absence of light. Normally, the spinning starts again when the light has been reinstated. The mechanism ‘boots-up’ or initialises to use data processing metaphors. Sometimes the spinning does not ever restart. This always coincides with a critical stage of mechanism damage whether by a gradual time related erosion or by sudden trauma. Sleep and death, in terms of awareness or consciousness are therefore identical.
Normally the universe cannot be understood in a manner in which does not involve the ego. However, a constitutional flexibility in the ocular mechanism can, in rare cases, allow for the perception and awareness of the silent spaces beyond the rim of the disc. The flexing of the ocular mechanism is difficult and effortful. Some manage to momentarily look over the rim of the spinning disc. Others contemplate the serene darkness and are forever changed. Most never achieve more than a reflexive twitching of the ocular mechanism and are condemned to understand existence through the ego until the disc ceases spinning.
**Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius**
The displayed plates were reproduced from Volume 11 of the Anglo-American Cyclopaedia which itself was a literal translation of the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1902. An article titled ‘Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius’, detailed the cultural traditions of Uqbar and its environs in Asia Minor. The article also gave a short account of the significance of a 15th century manuscript discovered in an Algerian coffee shop in 1890.
The plates reproduced from this manuscript apparently depict a mechanism that models man's consciousness though the accompanying textual fragments state categorically that the mechanism does not simulate but rather is a man's consciousness - "_one mechanism at once in work and stopped under partial draping of breathing flesh_."
The following extracts are taken from the article.
**Consciousness**
The mechanism transcribes sight and sound onto a spinning disc whose spinning serves also to stabilise and propel. Impressions received by the main funnel and embedded ocular apparatus are conveyed via vibrations to a needle that engraves the disc surface. The recorded sound impressions are transmitted to the Consciousness Sphere via the vibrational energy experienced by another needle. A single lens attached to the Sphere reads visual impressions from the disc surface. The mechanism function therefore posits that _Human Consciousness is nothing more than Awareness_. Specifically, awareness of the recorded contents on the disc surface or what we may now interpret as the Mind or Ego.
**Madness and Suffering**
The disc spins continually and the ocular mechanism and auditory needle are, for the most part, fixed onto the surface of the disc though both the ocular mechanism and needle, despite the operation of various damping mechanisms, can be thought to randomly jump the grooves on the surface of the disc. The Consciousness Sphere is therefore subjected to a continual stream of semi-random impressions, impressions which become more salient in delirium and madness though even temperate dispositions experience wayward thoughts numbering in the hundreds every moment.
**Death and Sleep**
The disc stops spinning periodically, an event which generally coincides with a regular absence of light. Spinning restarts when the light has been reinstated. Sometimes the spinning cannot restart. This coincides with a critical stage of mechanism damage whether by a gradual time related erosion or by sudden trauma. Sleep and death, in terms of awareness or consciousness are therefore identical.
**Enlightenment**
There is a small flexibility inherent in the ocular mechanism attached to the Consciousness Sphere which allows the lens to peer over the edge of the disc. The overlooking of the Mind/Ego disc can be thought to correspond to the state of Buddah/Christ awareness state achieved in advanced meditative states. The flexing of the ocular mechanism is difficult and effortful. Some manage to momentarily look over the rim of the spinning disc. Others contemplate the serene darkness and are forever changed. Most never achieve more than a reflexive twitching of the ocular mechanism and are condemned to understand existence through the Ego until the disc ceases spinning completely.
Genius. I'm going to put an entry for the ego machine into wiki! Complete with plates and references to a series of paintings by Mark Peatfield.