In fact, a sense of essence is, in essence, the essence of sense, in effect. - Douglas Hofstadter

In the end, we self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages are little miracles of self-reference.

"When a system of "meaningless" symbols has patterns in it that accurately track, or mirror, various phenomena in the world, then that tracking or mirroring imbues the symbols with some degree of meaning-indeed, such tracking or mirroring is no less and no more than what meaning is. Depending on how complex and subtle and reliable the tracking is, different degrees of meaningfulness arise."

Sometimes it seems as though each new step towards AI, rather than producing something which everyone agrees is real intelligence, merely reveals what real intelligence is not.