Butterflies [Nino Nakano x Male Reader]

Chapter 33 - Infatuation

Y/N POV:

"So, according to this line of thought," Itsuki said, "religions are a way to deal with existential dread, which in turn is an evolved version of the emotion of fear. Since we previously established that complex emotions such as happiness, anger, and existential dread are intrinsically linked to consciousness, we can therefore infer that religion can only derive from emotional entities, which are in turn conscious. So what this whole thing means is that if eventually find aliens and they have or had some sort of spirituality in their culture, they are, in fact, conscious. It's a way to prove that there can be more than one self-aware element in a universe, unless it's like a simulation, of course."

She hadn't noticed that everyone else had gone silent just to tune into our conversation. We had entered this tangent quite some time ago while studying medieval Europe. The topic eventually went from feudalism to the church, and then to philosophy. It boggles my mind that someone who is so actively interested and so passionate about this sort of stuff still somehow thinks herself to be stupid. She knew that wasn't true, and the roof was that exact moment. It was as if she had forgotten about all that was bothering her. Her mind was solely focused on driving her passionate discussion

No. It was more than that. As she talked, all of us could hear the passion for knowledge in her voice, and the spark in her eyes that had been missing for quite some time. At that moment, she was happy.

Though I must say I engineered this situation a little bit. Regardless of Nino's theory about her being the author of the note, I believe lifting her spirits is something all of us would benefit from. That's how we do things. Helping one person at a time, one step at a time. And before you know it, step-by-step, all five of them will have gone further than they ever dreamed of.

I urged the conversation to continue, and while on a normal day I would have plenty of points and arguments to make about this topic, today my brain is on low rotations. I'm still staggered about the information Nino and I deduced... if it is true, I have no idea what to do with it.

"I'm still not quite getting why you're saying emotion and consciousness are intrinsically linked," I prompted.

"Well, I'm glad you asked," Itsuki said, "Consciousness can exist in entities without emotion, but once the emotion is present, creatures can experience a higher form of consciousness such as the ones seen in mammals. If we add planning, higher cognition, and finally language, we arrive at a level of consciousness that is as 'intense' as that of a human."

"That doesn't really answer the question though."

"Let me put it differently. Where do you feel emotion? Other than some physiological responses, you don't feel it in your body. You feel it in your mind. In your consciousness! And you can only act on them because you are conscious. Another way of putting it is that emotions have no purpose if there isn't a consciousness to feel them. Like, an amoeba wouldn't know what do to with a feeling of anger precisely because it doesn't have that higher cognition to be able to feel it and interpret it."

"I dunno dude. I'm familiar with the theory that consciousness emerged to help ancient lifeforms to understand that just because their food is out of their field of vision, it doesn't mean it disappeared forever. But this link you're telling me is a bit new to me."

"Someone watches Kurzgesagt, I see," she giggled, "One point you can link to that is that consciousness is linked with things that are mobile. A plant, for example, doesn't need it because its food doesn't run away from it."

"Okay, nerds. Sorry to cut your talk short, but the session has ended ten minutes ago."

"What? Really?" Itsuki said in disbelief, "I completely lost track of time."