Re[2]: continuity of self [ was META: Sept. 11 and Singularity]

From: Cliff Stabbert (cps46@earthlink.net)
Date: Fri Sep 13 2002 - 14:14:52 MDT


Friday, September 13, 2002, 12:28:42 PM, Tomaz Kristan wrote:

TK> I can upload myself:
TK>
TK> - A - with all my memories
TK> - B - with some of my memories
TK> - C - with no memories at all
TK> - D - with the memories of somebody else
TK>
TK> In _all_ those cases - I am upladed. Most people think, that A and
TK> maybe B are only enough. That the continuity of the self is
TK> preserved (only) this way.

I wonder about case C. Leaving aside the idea that the "Collective
Unconscious" might contain racial memories, humans aren't born as a
blank slate. Like other animals, we have instincts, we have
tendencies to develop in certain ways, etc. Our personal
consciousness is very bound up in those things. And our memories of the
womb play, according to a number of people, a large role in our later
psychological development (they are the beginning of our psychological
development). They might not be story-type memories, and we might not
be able to access them consciously, but they're there.

How many layers do you strip away? Is the consciousness that is the
same in me as in you also the same as the consciousness in a dog? In
a bat? In an ant?

--
Cliff






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