2008/4/22 Tom Caylor <daddycaylor.domain.name.hidden>:
> Your "external event" is part of what I was referring to as "out
> there". I would argue for the consistency and the merits of the view
> that our identity is tied not only to our brains but also to events
> recorded outside of our brains. Someone with Alzheimers still has a
> history (and also an identity) recorded externally to their brains, a
> history that can be read by other persons. I know, the quantum
> superposition view entails that there are multiple histories being
> read by multiple persons in multiple universes. As I have said before
> on this list, I think that this just multiplies the problem. If your
> identity is tied only to your brain, and the first person observer
> moments that it can experience based solely on internal "memory", then
> you have multiple people in multiple universes treating the Alzheimers
> patient as worthless (since they know that the patient cannot remember
> these accomplishments), and multiple Alzheimers patients believing
> that he/she is worthless, with no identity so speak of. What's wrong
> with the view that our memory is augmented by the external world
> around us? In fact, it has been discussed here before that perhaps
> consciousness itself needs a world external to our "brains" in order
> to keep living. I'm for the view that life/consciousness/everything
> is about relationships rather than data.
The Alzheimer's patient is significant to other people because they
remember him and maintain a relationship with him. If he has forgotten
who exactly they are but still retains some sort of emotional
attachment to them - "the nice woman who has come to visit me" - then
that is a feeling and it is part of the content of the observer
moment. But as memory and cognition deteriorate and only the
vegetative functions remain, then unfortunately what makes the person
a person is fading away. That's why it's so sad when a family member
gets Alzheimer's.
--
Stathis Papaioannou
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Received on Tue Apr 22 2008 - 09:26:31 PDT