From: Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Mon Oct 28 1996 - 08:57:35 MST
On Wed, 23 Oct 1996 mlbowli1@cord.iupui.edu wrote:
> On Tue, 22 Oct 1996, Anders Sandberg wrote:
>
> > I identify myself with what I *do*, not what I *am*.
>
> Doesn't *doing* presuppose *identity* presuppose *existence*?
Well, I don't doubt my own existence. What I doubt it identity in the
common usage of the term - some inner core that is forever unchanged.
> Do you
> identify yourself with only the top of this hierarchy, as actions
> independent of the being to which they are ascribed? Am I reading to
> much into your words!?
Well, my philosophy is still somewhat fuzzy - I know what I mean, but I have
so far not formalized my views. I think we are biased to place strict binary
limits of 'me' and 'not-me' where there shouldn't be any - where do you end?
Beyond your brain? Beyond your skin? Beyond your clothes? Beyond your
personal space? Beyond your social interactions? As I see it, there is no
black and white limit, just a gradual decrease of selfness. And this selfness
can change greatly. There is no fixed 'me', just a bundle of causally
interconnected events that share some common qualities.
When I use the word 'I', I refer to this bundle. And since I prefer to
look at its dynamic structure rather than its constituents (which are
always flowing through it: ideas, atoms, energy...), I fully subscribe to
the slogan "I am a verb":
I am not an individual.
An atom with a shining gnostic nucleus.
I am a wind, a verb, a process
That evolves and changes by my own rules.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
nv91-asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~nv91-asa/main.html
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