Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > 2009/2/11 Brent Meeker <meeke...@dslextreme.com>: > >>> 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-l...@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
