Can you say more about consciousness not being as continuous as we pretend?
Hmm. This is more of a pet theory than one that I've seen elsewhere. But the brain is constantly shifting; the pathways are only barely set, in many cases. And consciousness is interrupted in lots of ways, small and large (when sleeping; when knocked out; when drifting, day-dreaming, lost in reverie, etc.). It would seem odd that the brain would be precisely the same after one of these interruptions than it was before them; but we perceive an unbroken chain, at least, from the position of "now".
If I concentrate, I fancy I can feel my brain's refresh-rate; it's about 2Hz, twice a second, the currents in my head recirculate. And there's the short-term glitch: trying to hold onto a thought for more than a few seconds is nearly impossible (though I understand meditation trains one to do this; or perhaps, to return to the same thought over and over again, which is the best I've managed to achieve). Given these "refresh" cycles...well, I'm not so sure our consciousness is especially continuous, and suspect that the illusion of continuity is like the illusion our eyes play on us as they lurch around in our heads, darting from one place to another while the brain fills in the gaps and pretends there's a world painted on canvas.
Even if it's not, deliberately ending what you view as your life so that a copy can pick up where you left off seems like a hard sell.
Yes. Absolutely. Half the premise of _Duplicate_ was a character who was darn sure that it worked differently than that--or at least was willing to sacrifice himself so that other versions of himself could survive. (The first few are forced; actual volitional self-destruction takes a few iterations...)
This is my problem with transporters, uploads, the works. It'll swear it's me; but it's not me. But then--so will tomorrow's me, and maybe he isn't right-now-me either. But we are forced into the future.
no subject
Hmm. This is more of a pet theory than one that I've seen elsewhere. But the brain is constantly shifting; the pathways are only barely set, in many cases. And consciousness is interrupted in lots of ways, small and large (when sleeping; when knocked out; when drifting, day-dreaming, lost in reverie, etc.). It would seem odd that the brain would be precisely the same after one of these interruptions than it was before them; but we perceive an unbroken chain, at least, from the position of "now".
If I concentrate, I fancy I can feel my brain's refresh-rate; it's about 2Hz, twice a second, the currents in my head recirculate. And there's the short-term glitch: trying to hold onto a thought for more than a few seconds is nearly impossible (though I understand meditation trains one to do this; or perhaps, to return to the same thought over and over again, which is the best I've managed to achieve). Given these "refresh" cycles...well, I'm not so sure our consciousness is especially continuous, and suspect that the illusion of continuity is like the illusion our eyes play on us as they lurch around in our heads, darting from one place to another while the brain fills in the gaps and pretends there's a world painted on canvas.
Even if it's not, deliberately ending what you view as your life so that a copy can pick up where you left off seems like a hard sell.
Yes. Absolutely. Half the premise of _Duplicate_ was a character who was darn sure that it worked differently than that--or at least was willing to sacrifice himself so that other versions of himself could survive. (The first few are forced; actual volitional self-destruction takes a few iterations...)
This is my problem with transporters, uploads, the works. It'll swear it's me; but it's not me. But then--so will tomorrow's me, and maybe he isn't right-now-me either. But we are forced into the future.