This month we will be reading:
**The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self**
by **Thomas Metzinger**

**“There is no such thing as a self. Your ‘self’ is a biological hallucination." - Ready to dissolve into the tunnel?**

1\. The Ego Tunnel: Prof\. Dr\. Thomas Metzinger at TEDxRheinMain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFjY1fAcESs
17 min quicky
2\. Is The Self An Illusion? Minimal Phenomenal Selfhood & Epistemic Agent Model \| Thomas Metzinger \(2 hours interview\)
https://youtu.be/lmcYvayadIE

**Quotes**

* “Consciousness is the appearance of a world.”
* “You are not a thing — you are a process of self-creation that is also a process of self-annihilation.”
* “The greatest existential danger for our species is our inability to understand our own minds.”
* “Your brain is a reality engine— it evolved not to show you the truth, but to keep you alive.”

**About book**

* The “self” is a transparent mental model—a simulation your brain runs to navigate life. No CEO in your head, no soul at the core.
* The book explores consciousness in robots, VR, and AI. What happens when machines enter their own ego tunnels?
* If the self is an illusion, what happens to free will, guilt, or moral responsibility?

**Discussion topics**

* “The Transparency Trap”:

Metzinger says we experience the self-model as reality, not as a construct. How would life change if we could “see through” the illusion?

* “The God Question”:

If consciousness is a tunnel, is there a “light at the end”—or just more tunnel? What does this mean for spirituality?

* “Love in the Tunnel”:

If your loved ones are just “phenomenal self-models” in your tunnel, is connection an act of mutual hallucination?

* “AI Rights”:

If a robot develops a self-model, does it deserve personhood? Should we engineer conscious machines at all?

**Connections to previos book:**

* Why Buddhism Is True: Compare Metzinger’s “no-self” with Buddhist anatta.
* The Case Against Reality: Both argue perception is a pragmatic interface, but Hoffman focuses on reality, Metzinger on the self.
* Notes from Underground: Dostoevsky’s existential angst meets neuroscience’s ego dissolution.

**The Rubber Hand Illusion \| Horizon \| BBC Studios**
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsmkgi7FgEo

Kayan

Philosophy and Psychology book club

Hobbies & Passions

Philosophy

Intellectual Discussions

Book Club

Self Exploration

Psychology

Anant Patel

Martin

User 365524556

Elle Dawson

sonexis7

Ash Ellis

The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self

Buddhism

Cognitive Neuroscience

Bacchus Bar in Birmingham (http://goo.gl/maps/nUgLd)

Share

Philosophy and Psychology book club

The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self

Philosophy and Psychology book club

Details

Members are also interested in