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I am more bored than you could ever possibly be. Go back to work.
To Be (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a great animated short by John Weldon that explores this topic. It's called To Be and can be found at this URL: http://www.nfb.ca/film/to_be/ [www.nfb.ca]
Re: (Score:2)
It's an existential question. There is no clear answer.
How you do define a life? It can't be consciousness unless you think sleep is death too. If you die but are then revived are you the same person?
You could say your life is your brain functioning, but the transporter (as depicted on Star Trek) keeps you conscious during the process.
Re: (Score:2)
Not to mention, as others have pointed out, the matter that makes up 'you' changes constantly and is totally replaced every 7-10 years. You're literally not the same person you were 10 years ago.
I like Rudy Rucker's exploration of the metaphysics in Software [openlibrary.org], where characters argue that it's not the physical being that matters, it's the pattern that embodies 'you'.
And "potential existence is just as good as actual existence." :)
Re: (Score:3)
Not to mention, as others have pointed out, the matter that makes up 'you' changes constantly and is totally replaced every 7-10 years.
Though that's not quite true, Neurons, in particular, are not replaced, you die with what you were born with. Other cells are replaced more frequently, but the essence of consciousness is in the brain. No one would call you a different person after a kidney transplant, but nearly everyone would call you a new person after a brain transplant.
http://askanaturalist.com/do-w... [askanaturalist.com]
Neurons in the cerebral cortex are never replaced. There are no neurons added to your cerebral cortex after birth. Any cerebral cortex neurons that die are not replaced.
Re: (Score:3)
But those neurons take in water, salts, glucose etc. and dispose of waste products, break down dead organelles, etc. They are not the same matter from minute to minute, let alone year to year.
Re: (Score:2)
But those neurons take in water, salts, glucose etc. and dispose of waste products, break down dead organelles, etc. They are not the same matter from minute to minute, let alone year to year.
*sigh* Don't know the forest from the trees, do you?
Re: (Score:2)
Well, I think this whole argument is essentially whether a forest is different from the trees that make it up. :)
Still, the point is that saying "neurons aren't replaced" is misleading, because they are replaced from the inside out.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:To Be (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
This just in [slashdot.org]...
Re: (Score:1)
YES! After reading Rucker's books, oh, about a million times (and a few million more from Iain Banks) And several episodes of general anesthesia, (and, yes, ketamine) I am pretty much convinced that I *could* be wetware-switched at night, while asleep, and i would still be me in the morning.
If my consciousness is the sum of my experiences (what else could it be) then the replicant who wakes up in the morning with the contents of my brain IS me. It will remember yesterday, just as I would, and it wil
Re: (Score:2)
You are your substrate. You may be happy to get into a star trek style matter teleporter, but I certainly wouldn't. What comes out the other end thinks it's you, but it isn't you. There is nothing to stop the other end making as many copies of you as it feels like, all of which would feel subjectively just like you.
For teleportation, I'm happy to get into space-bending or wormhole based ones, but not the kind that rip you apart into component particles to be reassembled from different particles elsewhere. F
Re: (Score:2)
Say your arm became detached in some kind of accident. Doctors re-attached it, good as new. Is it still your arm? Are you still you?
So how about if somehow medical science could repair a bisected brain? Is the person that wakes up still you?
Even today brain surgery is not that uncommon and is often designed to have significant effects on a person's mind and personality.
I'm not really sure myself, but I think your observation that you are inseparable from your substrate is correct. But in that case it seems
Re: (Score:2)
Say your arm became detached in some kind of accident. Doctors re-attached it, good as new. Is it still your arm? Are you still you?
I am my brain. So yes. As long as I have arms where my brain thinks they should be, and the correct neural circuitry to make it feel as if I 'own' it, no problem.
So how about if somehow medical science could repair a bisected brain? Is the person that wakes up still you?
I think the length of time the brain was bisected for would matter. I feel as though gradual change combats this disrupted continuity issue.
Similar questions arise if you consider uploading your consciousness or replacing your organic brain with an electronic one. I feel as if there's a way to make it feel as if it's 'you' in the end configuration,
Re: (Score:2)
But if 'you' are the information and it is divorce-able from the substrate, you're essentially already just a software program ready to be copied ad-infinitum.
I've been trying to find reasons for why that might not be the case, but it seems that it really could be...
Considering we lose consciousness every day and wake up in an altered mental and physical state, it is hard to argue that any kind of continuity is necessary unless you accept that we die every time we sleep.
Also "Moon" (Score:1)
Also "Moon" with Sam Rockwell. It's really nice and depressing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_(film) [wikipedia.org]
If you ever wondered how it might feel to meet an identical clone, with each copy certain they are the "Real One"
Re: (Score:2)
That is a funny movie/animation!
And insightful, too!
Re: (Score:2)
That short was terrible. It describes a single position in quite an obnoxious and drawn out way.
I'll save others the 10 minutes: "If you teleport by copying and destroying the original, you destroy the original. The original doesn't want to be destroyed."
If you disagree with the above, please tell me what other points were made.