You are conscious if what you can directly perceive. You are aware of everything else. Consciousness is deeply personal but it is never a gradient. What a person can be conscious of is different to the degree our biology permits. Everything you’ve said lines up perfectly with how consciousness works. We’re in heated agreement except for the hint that there are things like ESP. There is no data that support the notion that you can be conscious of the thoughts of others indirectly.
Consciousness is esoteric but easily understood if we change the question to “What are we conscious of?” In order to answer that we need a feedback loop. I am conscious of the temperature in the room I am in but I am only aware that other buildings near me have rooms that have some temperature; I do not know if it is hot or cold in them. I am not conscious of the comfort state of those rooms. Another example is that I am aware of FM radio waves around me but I’m not conscious of them. If they all disappeared suddenly I’d have no idea unless there was a feedback loop such as an FM radio on at the time. So consciousness is always specific to feedback. Now let’s factor in autonomy which is required to react to the feedback loop. If I am conscious I am cold in a room I can take action and get a jacket or blanket. Environmental Cause -> Feedback -> Reaction -> Repeat. This doesn’t work for awareness. I might be aware of the temperature but if I do not ‘feel’ cold then my reaction may not be appropriate. I could ‘hallucinate’ and do the wrong thing; leading me to freeze to death. You can see a natural example of this in people with congenital insensitivity to pain, (CIP) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by the inability to perceive physical pain. These people cannot feel any physical pain. People with this condition might very well freeze to death because there is no pain associated with it for them. They are not conscious of the problem! I’m gonna summarize. Consciousness is the general term we give to being generally aware of our environment through feedback loops. There is no such a thing as complete consciousness because there are attributes of the universe you cannot percieve directly or indirectly (this indirect part is always subject to change)
So very true.
I lived in Denmark for a few years, and no, it isn’t the same in all developed nations.
There never was a social contract, there never was anyone bound to look after your interest. That is why unions are the answer.
I too feel very seen right now.
People do not have the right to act in a way that decidedly harms others, and spreading disease counts. We all know (I really hope you do) that vaccines do not stop one from getting a disease but they do constrain it, shortening the illness, and reducing the symptoms.