From: brent.allsop@attbi.com
Date: Tue Oct 15 2002 - 16:56:57 MDT
FutureQ wrote:
<<<
gts wrote:
> Can anyone explain the mechanism by which one
> individual's sense of self should pass to another
individual upon the
> death of the first individual? It seems to me that
belief in such a
> thing is tantamount to a belief in witchcraft.
>
Exactly! That's just how I perceive it. I'd have to
sense continuity and to believe that is possible I'd
have to believe in spirit souls and I don't and won't.
Don't point that thing at me!
>>>
It is not witchcraft at all, if you have a
representational view of awareness like that which
Chalmers and others are arguing for more and more these
days.
We have conscious knowledge of what surrounds our body
in our head. At the center of this conscious knowledge
is the conscious knowledge of our body. Again, all in
our head even though it seems like it is reality
itself. We even have conscious knowledge of something
best called a “spirit”, even though there is no real
spirit in reality that this knowledge represents. This
knowledge of ourselves is represented as existing inside
of our knowledge of our skulls, looking out of our eyes
as if they were windows. Even though this knowledge of
ourselves doesn’t represent any physical object or
entity – it is still very important and very real. In
reality, this knowledge is really what we are. It is
the minds (I) even though it is only a conscious
representation of such. When having these types of
discussions it is important to include this conscious
representation of knowledge even thought there is
nothing in reality it represents.
When we have an out of body experience, this knowledge
of ourselves as a spirit, leaves our knowledge of our
head – all of which is really simply the conscious
knowledge in our brain.
There is no reason why two brains can not be
subjectively merged together to produce a single
awareness space. In reality this is precisely what we
have – a right and left hemisphere connected by the
corpus collosum. There is no reason other brains can
not be merged with our brain in the same way. Within
such a merged space knowledge of ourselves could
theoretically freely travel between enabling the kind of
continuity most people think they require in order to be
uploaded/transported right?
Brent Allsop
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