[ExI] Continuity of experience.

Spencer Campbell lacertilian at gmail.com
Sun Feb 28 18:25:18 UTC 2010


John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net>:
> If electrical charge distribution is included in the "et cetera" then it's meaningless to talk about copies that are identical to working models but are nevertheless inert.

See, this is why I specified "structural properties". I would not
consider electrical charge distribution to be a structural property.
That's an electrical property.


John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net>:
> Sleeping people and those in a coma due to massive brain damage do both of those things but they don't have a mind, or at least they don't act like they do.

Yeah, but people wake up from sleep and comas. I'm stretching the
concept of "mind" a little far for the purposes of this discussion.

I'm saying: the mind is the sum total of everything the brain does,
and the brain (normally) regulates pulse and breathing. Therefore, the
mind is responsible for both.


John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net>:
> And concerning the title of this thread ask yourself one question, what would the NON continuity of existence seem like? I don't think there is any doubt that subjectively everything would seem as continuous as ever, it's just that the external world would seem to jump. So why should people get all hot and bothered worrying about the continuity of their existence?

Discontinuous experience is conceivable and not worrying in and of
itself. In fact, people seem to live through it every day.

You said "non-continuity of existence", though, and maybe that's a
more appropriate name for the subject. That certainly is worrying. If
I cease to exist for a while, and then later on something just like me
comes into existence, is it really me?

Stupid question. Yes, of course it's me. The part that troubles me,
irrationally, is that I'm not sure I would be it.


John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net>:
> Neither would I, but I think it's irrelevant to the question at hand.

(Talking about quantized time, here.)

I'd be inclined to agree. Nevertheless, it came up. I can't just
ignore the arguments that I think are irrelevant, you know!



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