this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2024
326 points (97.4% liked)
Technology
60102 readers
2014 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I hate to break it to you, but our meat brains don't even have continuity of consciousness. We become unconscious all the time. The only real constant is the "hardware" our consciousness emerges from, but even that is always changing.
Except our brains are still functioning. If they didn't keep functioning, we'd be brain dead. The point is that there's a common thread that connects every waking moment together.
I don't get the down votes. Did y'all forget about sleep? No one vividly dreams every night all night long. Often it's the fade to black going to sleep then the sudden awakening.
You do not die every night.
Obviously not, but what is the functional difference? If you can't tell it's happening, does it actually matter?
Yes, yes it matters a lot. If you die you do not wake up again.
Sorry, should have been more specific. If you died in your sleep every night and came back to life in the morning, and you couldn't tell it was happening, would it matter?
It's not a question with a right answer, I just want to hear your thoughts about it
I'm that case no it wouldn't matter. It would make us all feel much better about the possibility of life after the body dies though.
What if a copy of you woke up in the morning? So you could see your dead body from yesterday, but consciousness would seem as continuous to you as normal--you went to sleep yesterday and effectively woke up today, just in a different body? Would it bother you knowing you weren't technically the same you as yesterday, even if it seemed like it to you?
Probably because I'd never want to sleep again. That would be a horrific way to find out you only have as long as you can stay awake.
How would you know?
How do you know you're not a copy of yesterday's you? If a clone has your memories and you're not around anymore, then what's the difference?
You'd have to experience death for the clone to continue being the only copy.
Yeah. In the example above the original is dead, and a clone with all of your memories up until the point of death is generated.
In that case, there is continuity of concussions, at least as far as anyone can tell, least of all the clone.
Don't try to get philosophical about this. There is a hard difference between copying a brain and actually transferring consciousness.
Er? It's a philosophical conversation since, you know, brain uploading is not a thing.
If you don't want to engage in philosophy, you're in the wrong place.
You're mixing up speculative and philosophical.
That's not what he means and you know it.