Identity (Identity)

by George Jelliss , Crewe, Monday, August 17, 2009, 21:46 (5575 days ago) @ dhw

dhw's last post was rather convoluted, but I'll try to answer at least in part, though I'm trying to clarify my thoughts as I go along. - dhw cites DT describing an ant brain as "a tiny living computer made up of nerve cells.". I'm not keen on comparing brains or nervous systems to computers too closely, though it sometimes helps. - dhw asks: "are the dreams and the brain independent of you?" ... "Where did those [new] thoughts come from?" ... "Do the neurons, or electric or chemical potentials activate or control themselves?" ... "What is this "we"? WHAT controls the thoughts? What is it that intentionally impels the ions to "travel along branches of the cell and impart information that create an activity"? What makes the "tiny living computer" function?" - I would say that most of my thinking is not of the "intentionally impelling" sort, in which "I", the ego, the will, acting through the frontal lobes (or something like that) directs the course of events. That would be just too exhausting! The "I" in this sense is only part of the "Me", if that makes sense. - dhw: "And as regards the parts that work subconsciously, what is it that involuntarily sparks the electricity and translates it into thoughts and images?" - The human brain works by taking in input through the senses, and from memories of past experiences and shuffling them around, comparing them and sorting them out in ways that hopefully make sense (pattern finding). I imagine a lot of that is done out of habit or are processes (macros?) that have evolved and proved useful. A lot of those can work subconsciously. - dhw: "you don't think you are the same person you were possibly even a minute ago. ... I'm asking what it is that processes them [experiences and thoughts] in the individual manner that is ours." - We are what we are, as individuals because of our inherited DNA and our life-experiences. You could say "we" are the sum of our experiences, of all our history. - dhw: "I agree when you say there is continuity, and I agree when you say that what "I" am evolves." - I'm not sure that continuity is the right word. Perhaps I should have said "contiguity". Continuity makes it seem too smooth. I've tended to make large sudden discontinuous changes to my life, such as my move back to Hastings last December. - dhw: "My question concerns the source of that part which is continuous. That "we" have some control, "we" process our experiences, "we" think thoughts, or thoughts occur to "us" is a statement of fact, but explains nothing." - On the contrary I find it a sufficient explanation. We are our experiences. I remember reading some science fiction stories in which it was suppose to be possible for people to make copies of themselves, so that if they got killed their backup copy would be activated and take their place. the backup would have all the same memories up to a certain time before. If you met such a clone of yourself, which one would be the "real" you? The answer would be that they were originally both you, but as soon as they start having their own separate experiences, they diverge to become two separate beings.

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GPJ