Theorising the origins of consciousness and of the self on a materialist or objectivist basis represents a great intellectual challenge and so confer status in a predominantly intellectualist culture. That doing so means ignoring what is both right in front of your face but also not orthogonal to the intellect only serves to raise the stakes. As intelligence and its artificial double become ever more indistinguishable what is lost falls further into oblivion. It is a perverse spiritual exercise or conjuration of the unknown, but perhaps the only one we have.