2009/2/11 Brent Meeker <[email protected]>: >> 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. -- Stathis Papaioannou --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
