From: Phil Osborn (philosborn2001@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Oct 28 2002 - 19:10:37 MST
Some thoughts on personal identity
Our identity is not some abstract collage of data and
programs. It is closely bound up with the notion of
purpose. What is our purpose?
This discussion has occurred here before, as in the
long discussions over the pseudo-question, "what is
the purpose of life?" Or worse, "what is the purpose
of the universe."
Consciousness is formed by and consists of feedback
loops. Those attempted loops that cannot complete
themselves tend to die out due to lack of
reinforcement. Those loops that contain internal
contradictions disapate energy uselessly, and
identifying them and resolving the contradictions is
an important maintenance task at minimum - independent
of the consequences in terms of useless or
self-destructive actions that may result. Those
mental processes that divorce themselves from any
possible reaffirmation via some kind of feedback
grounded in the real world eventually get forgotten.
The loops that survive, prosper and come to dominate
the process of consciousness, from the sensory/motor
of touching finger to thumb in the womb, to the
highest level concepts of mathematics, are the ones
that participate in and engender an integrated set of
loop processes, self-sustaining, self-correcting, and
capable of grounding in clear, complex,
life-supporting results in the real world.
Examples of such complex loops: romantic love
entanglements, creative work,
political/religious/philosophical causes.
We do not merely cling to our identities out of habit
or because our consciousness evolved out of combative
selection processes in a battle for the resources of
the mind and body. There is also an underlying thirst
to see that next phase of uniquely, individually
filtered, styled and integrated of data. I.e., the
continuation and fulfillment of the loop.
While there are peak moments in life when some major
underlying loop is reaffirmed, as in the fulfillment
of some great quest or love, there is always the
expectation and feeling that more is coming. And
those particular events that one has had a determining
or contributing part of are far more fulfilling than
those which are merely pleasing in the abstract,
although our identification with other people -
especially those "close" to us, intelligence in
general, life in general, order, structure, or the
endless possibilities of the universe at large, often
yields far more feedback than our own efforts.
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