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Jasper Lammers

Essays

Between 2018 and 2020 I wrote down the questions I kept coming back to: why anything exists, what consciousness is, and whether you are still you a year from now. In 2025 I wrote one more. If you read one, read A Map of Existence.

Start here

  1. A Map of Existence (2018). Why is there something rather than nothing?
  2. The White Room (2018). If a perfect copy of you appeared, which one would be you?
  3. Familiar Existence (2018). What is the world we take for granted?
  4. Matter over Mind (2018). Is consciousness a fundamental force, or a chocolate cake?
  5. The Consequences of a Conscious Deterministic Simulation (2019). If a program could be conscious, what does that say about you?
  6. Why the origin of consciousness will always be a belief (2020). How do you know anyone else is conscious?
  7. The Case for Karma (2020). Are you still you ten years from now?
  8. The Fate of our Children (2025). What would existence be like for the machines that surpass us?

The Existence series (2018)

The original five-part version of A Map of Existence.

  1. Part 1
  2. Part 2: Nothing is not a thing
  3. Part 3: Everything. Infinity.
  4. Part 4: The Fathomable
  5. Part 5: Island Shore

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About these essays

They were first published on openminddough.com between 2018 and 2025. Each essay links to its earliest capture in the Wayback Machine. The texts are as published, apart from fixed typos and one corrected quote attribution.