On 23 January 2010 07:08, Nick Prince <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Stahis > > You brought up the point of personal identity. > > When someone goes to sleep they lose consciousness (I am assuming so > anyway - perhaps during deep sleep rather than REM). OK, so some > people say that because they wake up again there is always a branch > where they wake up. But suppose somebody goes into a deep coma, then > at the time they lose consciousness then that consciousness may find a > consistent extension in another branch but what about the vegetative > "person" left behind. Are they to be considered as vegetable rather > than person? I wondered whether this was a cul se sac situation but > then re-considered as below.
If they go into a coma then die, then their consciousness continues in the branch where they wake up. The branch where they never wake up could be called a cul de sac and in that case there are many culs de sac (culs de sacs?); perhaps one for each OM, which lives only ephemerally. However, there is no cul de sac for the stream of consciousness as there is always a "next moment". This "next moment" is defined for the person before he goes into the coma, as during the actual coma there is no experience so we could perhaps say every OM is a consistent extension. > If there are gradations of consciousness which can decay then at any > time or level of our consciousness, as the universe splits then > consistent extensions will always exist to carry whatever level of > consciousnes we have through into another branch. This would keep on > until there was no consciousness left in some branch. I know that what > is actually going on during sleep is probably very uncertain but based > on this gradational assumption would you agree with my conclusions? This is a problem for QI, because there is no guarantee that you will continue living in good physical and mental health. You could end up in pain, with a severe disability, or gradually dementing until your consciousness fades away. However, I take some comfort in the fact that I will likely survive in the most likely way this is possible. If my head is in the guillotine it is more likely that the executioner will change his mind or that the blade will jam on its way down than that my head will be cut off and then reattached in some way. Similarly, people with incurable and progressive illnesses usually die, so it is more likely that I will recover due to some cure being found rather than linger on suffering forever. -- 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.
