Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
> 2009/2/11 Brent Meeker <meekerdb.domain.name.hidden>:
>
>>> But the same could be said about everyday life. The person who wakes
>>> up in my bed tomorrow won't be me, he will be some guy who thinks he's
>>> me and shares my memories, personality traits, physical
>>> characteristics and so on. In other words, everyone only lives
>>> transiently, and continuity of consciousness is an illusion.
>> I think I understand your point, but I don't see that the continuity of
>> consciousness is any more an illusion than any other continuity: the continuity
>> of space, the persistence of objects, etc. You are just generalizing Zeno's
>> paradox. But once you look at it that way, the question becomes, "Why imagine
>> the continuity is made up of discrete elements?" It is this conceptualization,
>> points in space, moments in time, observer moments as atoms of consciousness,
>> that creates the paradox. So maybe we should recognize continuity as
>> fundamental. The continuity need not be temporal, it could be a more abstract
>> property such a causal connection or perhaps what Bruno says distinguishes a
>> computation from a description of the computation.
>
> I don't think it makes a difference if life is continuous or discrete:
> it is still possible to assert that future versions of myself are
> different people who merely experience the illusion of being me.
> However, this just becomes a semantic exercise. Saying that I will
> wake up in my bed tomorrow is equivalent to saying that someone
> sufficiently similar to me will wake up in my bed tomorrow.
If continuity is fundamental then personal identity could be defined in terms of
it and there could be a real difference between you and someone with the same
memories, but without continuity to your past.
Brent
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group.
To post to this group, send email to everything-list.domain.name.hidden
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscribe.domain.name.hidden
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
Received on Wed Feb 11 2009 - 17:44:35 PST