I wrote the first draft of “What’s it Like to Be a State?” sometime in late 2017, during an unusual time in both my personal life and my research career. I was about halfway through my PhD at the University of Cambridge and was feeling both immensely homesick and quite bored—trapped in a small town that felt ripped from the Victorian era. I filled my free time watching large numbers of pre-recorded NBA games and, also, for some reason, reading philosophy of mind….
![Conscious States in a World of Make Believe](https://i0.wp.com/www.duckofminerva.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/international_theory.jpeg?resize=1080%2C675&ssl=1)