I believe this is where our cognitive abilities essentially run up against the incompleteness theorem. Everything we can possibly conceive of is happening inside consciousness. There’s no way for us to define the system from inside the system.
Like trying to define the boundaries of the universe (with the caveat that of course there’s nothing outside the universe and there’s presumably stuff outside of consciousness, just we never experience it directly)
We are conditioned to be dumb. To be clear, I'm not saying it's necessarily intentional (though I am very suspicious), but it isn't physics or (only) Mother Nature that's caused the problem, it is our own actions, or lack thereof. People cannot think about consciousness skilfully for the same reason most people can't think about physics skilfully: it requires particular education. And it isn't just consciousness that requires special education, have you seen the train wreck that politics/geopolitics and economics are? Heck, we can't even reproduce any more in a lot of Western countries.
> There’s no way for us to define the system from inside the system.
How could one know such a thing? Plus, Humans "define" things all the time, there is no requirement for any the stories we tell each other to be correct. People (and the smarter the better) seem to downright revel in it.
> Like trying to define the boundaries of the universe (with the caveat that of course...
Yes, of course.
See how easy it is!
> just we never experience it directly
How could you possibly know the entirety of all human experiences? Let me guess: a story? Perhaps one based on critical thinking and science, that makes complete sense (so it must be true, as per critical thinking)?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserved_word
"Flagged" article, wow that's unexpected.