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What are things? What is energy? What is my soul? Where did it come from? Is it even in this spacetime, or is the body an avatar and I'm connecting into to it via some process? How was my soul created? Why do I experience rather than my body function solely as a biochemical robot? Where does my soul go when my body dies? Is there an end to eternity? If so, what happens or doesn't happen? If not, how does change continue? What does my soul do until then? I understand life. I don't understand experience.
One time I heard an assumption that every single electron is the same electron in different places and times. I asked a physicist what they thought of that idea. He thought for a moment and responded, "Would it even matter?" Sometimes I imagine that we are all the same person in different bodies living different lives. Every normal person, every genius, philanthropist, every monster, every slave, every billionaire, every dead fetus, every person I've dated, my parents,...we're all the same person living in a different body going through every single experience of life. When I do that, everything seems so simple.
So would it even matter? Yes, because what if individuality is false? What if we're all one thing, but the current structure of life doesn't allow us to experience it as such so we incorrectly think that each individual medium of perception is completely independent? Giving everything to others would be selfish. Working as a team for the benefit of everyone would be the ultimate selfish move. We could stop all competition, treat each other with utmost compassion, and maximize our limited time in each body. But alas, the selfish versions of us are too underdeveloped in that dimension to let that happen just yet. I wonder what it would take for each of us to reach the understanding that we're all the same soul.
I have a friend like you whom I love to send into the chasm that is his own mind. The physicist has the attitude needed to deal with these thoughts - does it even matter? Ultimately, until we know our existence is false, we might as well keep on appreciating what we experience, right?
In 'i am a strange loop' Douglas Hofstadter makes a good point how the recursion ability of your brain might lead to the emergence of a soul. And that in a very mom reductionist and comforting manner. Great book.
Furthermore a good shower thought I've had was not us all being the same person, but reincarnation being true, but also for inanimate objects. So that most inhabit just atoms of matter, for millions of years and that inhabiting a live creature is very rare, even rarer a sentient creature. That puts a different perspective on being, I find.
Nice! Regarding that shower thought, have you seen Everything Everywhere All at Once?
Haven't seen it, will put it on the to watch list, ty!
Get ready!! In my opinion, it's one of the best movies ever made.
How does my soul remember everything back as if I never went to sleep. You do it every day but losing and regaining consciousness in that very practical way is already pretty mind-blowing to me.
Soul creation and experience being so analog is because our brainputers are in some ways very analog, and adaptive. And your biorobotmachine is also very analog, so that kind of clicks for me :)
Why do you assume we even have a soul? There is no evidence to show that we do have one, but we have tons of evidence to show that we are just our brains, and if the brain is damaged, that can change our personalities to wild degrees.
There is zero reason to believe or even think we are all the same person.
There is some short story about all people being one being living every human life that ever will be and that when they are done they will be born as a God or some other elevated being.
The Egg by Andy Weir.