the essence of self and teleport

[svenof9]

Have you ever been disturbed by teleport? You get destroyed in one place and an exact replica is created elsewhere. No one else notices, but I argue that you sure do! Or, at least, you would if you were still alive

Comments

[montyy0]

That seems like a good approximation, but the brain isn't intact even in normal living let alone when you have a beer or bonk your head. There's some sort of Ship of Theseus argument that seems at odds with teleportation... maybe because identity ought to be continuous, or at least connected, in space-time. How about if your brain were faithfully duplicated? What if intelligent space-fungi removed your brain and put it in a metal cylinder? What would happen if MRI technology or something got so good that a computer could take a scan of every neuron enough that it could simulate your brain's behavior accurately? Hormones, many from body parts outside the brain, clearly influence thinking, does that mean they're not part of identity

[catachthonian]

This seems related to the general problem of integrating the subjective experience of consciousness into an objective, scientific view of reality. It appears that our brain cells somehow produce subjective experience, but unless we know how, it may not be possible to decide certain limiting cases.

Maybe our consciousness is always "teleporting" from moment to moment...continually vanishing and being recreated.

[kragen]

Perhaps this is a reductio ad absurdum, with the inevitable conclusion being: you don't exist in the first place, in the sense of a conscious identity that persists over time. You just have the impression that you have done so in the past (because you have memories?) and an expectation that you may do so in the future

[anemone]

I think what the brain does depends on other parts of the body, though. The blood at least--if you get adrenaline flowing, things are different. More testosterone, thoughts wander to the bedroom, more oxytocin, your kids look cuter. Blood sugar gets low, you might get grumpy and short tempered.

Those are all kinda minor things, but they could make a difference for full replication of "you" experience, it would take more than the brain, I think.