Jordan Mattox

I am reading Solaris for the first time. I may have watched Soderbergh’s adaptation, or translation if you will, but I do not remember much of it. Full disclosure, I am only halfway through the book. But I am thinking a lot about different kinds of minds and disembodied minds, per Ed Yong’s book and a new book by Jay Garfield reframing our understanding of selves. We tend to see entities with less firm boundaries as less of an identity. Boundaries define limits and entities need a demarcation between in and out. However, all of this is an illusion as we are constantly exchanging molecules with the environment; cells are dying constantly and being replaced with new ones; new forms of bacteria enter bodies and others leave. This is why I love the idea of a conscious entity like an ocean because it brings us closer conceptually to reality even though it is challenging to wrap our minds around.