identity/persistent consciousness is an illusion

[radicalrationalist]

the problem of consciousness is that from day to day, there is no actual continuation. it is only an illusion. your old cells and neurons die, and new ones are formed. it's the same process as if you teleported, and in doing so your original body was destroyed, and a new copy was created. between this new consciousness and the old one is a gap where death does take place.. this concept was explored in the nolan movie the prestige. the main twist being that the teleporter is a cloning device, the original had to die. meaning, jackman's character had to accept beforehand that he would have to die in order for his clones to carry out his plans. there is a parallel to reproduction in that thought experiment.

in short, we are continually dying all the time. we die trillions of deaths throughout our lives. when the final death occurs, that is simply our bodies no longer able to replicate itself to continue creating the illusion of consciousness.

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[BrahminBoss]

All wrong

 

[radicalrationalist]

the 10 year old you had to die and be replaced by older clones for there to be a 20 year old you.

none of the current cells of your body will be alive in 10 years. what will exist will be a new body comprised of new cells.

the thoughts you have will therefore not be the thoughts of the same person at 10, because that person literally died and ceased to exist, as part of the process of cellular regeneration.

what seem like continuous thoughts and what you experience as memories are just continuous replications, copy and pasted.