What do you think is the source of your consciousness? Can it be copied or transferred?

by EndofMysteries 34 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  EndofMysteries

  This seems to be a question that even scientifically is still in the air.

  Right now your consciousness, is it the physical part of the brain? The electrical signals in the brain? What of the stories of those who were clinically dead? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11144442/First-hint-of-life-after-death-in-biggest-ever-scientific-study.html

  I read about Stephen Hawkings discussing copying our brain and into a robot to live forever. But lets say that happened right now, your brain was copied and put into a robot. Wouldn't your consciousness still be in this physical body and this robot would be as much of you as a twin or look alike, maybe even have every memory, but when you sleep at night or die, something looking like you might still be around but it still wouldn't be 'you'. Your consciousness would be dead.

  The same concept with the 6th day. Even though it appeared by cloning those people were brought back to life, they really were not. It was a new life with copied memories. The life that died was dead.

  If you died, but your brain was preserved and many years later implanted or reactivated, would it be you? What if information on the brain was moved to another, would you wake up or would it be a new life thinking it was you?

  Curious on the thoughts of those on this forum.
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  Village Idiot

  The mind is what the brain does. No hope in copying or transferring to another brain no gain for the original individual even if it is possible.

  What you mentioned about duplicate copies being exactly like you but another you (like an identical twin with your exact same memories) is what I refer to as "The Star Trek transporter room conundrum". Your original you is disassembled into atoms that get transported to another location with an identical, but not original you. The act of disassembling your body is tantamount to death.
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  Island Man

  I believe consciousness is an emergent property of the functioning brain. There is no one center in the brain that is responsible for consciousness. It seems like consciousness is the summation of the functioning of multiple - or all - centers of the brain.

  Some people with certain kinds of brain malfunctions actually have a reduced level of consciousness. They're not unconscious but the acuity of their consciousness becomes detectably reduced.

  There is a school of thought that suggests everything is conscious - but not with the same degree of cognition. Maybe consciousness is just a fundamental property of existence itself. Maybe a rock experiences its own existence in some very primitive, non-cognitive way. Maybe brains only enhance the acuity of consciousness instead of actually producing the phenomenon.

  I think it is theoretically possible to duplicate a mind and copy your consciousness to another body. But that raises the question of what happens when the original body dies. Do you actually die or do you keep living. I think the answer to that question is that both happens! You simultaneously die and you keep living. You experience both because you are now two. Your consciousness has been duplicated. The you that it attached to the original body experiences death. The you that is in the new body experiences continued life. So the original you will experience death so duplicating your consciousness is no way to escape death. But then again, the copied consciousness will also feel as if it is you yourself and will think that it is cheating death. But the original you wouldn't experience that glee. I suppose the original you will have to die with the consolation of knowing that a version of himself still exists and experiences the joy of cheating death. I think the key to untangling the conundrum is to not see it as either or but as both. Both happens because you become two separate but identical consciousnesses both of which experience life as if they are the original you, while being unable to experience what the other is currently experiencing (after the duplication).
  
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  OneEyedJoe

  Consciousness is an emergent property of a very complex system made up of small pieces that follow simple rules. Just like a flock of birds or a school of fish seems to be something more than the sum of its parts, so does consciousness. But that doesn't mean it actually is something more.
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  no-zombie

  I've thought about this for some time and while I don't have an answer, it has a direct link to the resurection hope and the question wether or not we have a soul. The way I see it is that if Jehovah remembers every single detail of us (down to arrangement of our sub-atomic particals) but there is no physical/spiritual/electrochemical linkage between our old body and the new one; then in reality the newly resurected person will only be a very exact clone of ther person who died. That person will swear he is the same person, he'll have the same memories, feeling and desires but is in reality, only a good copy. As mentioned before in the 6 day cloning issues. However if the soul does exist, then could be simply put back into a new shell. There was the term "soul sleep" disscussed in the passed to address some theological problems; but if the soul dosen't exist, i can't see how the consciousness of a person can be transfered. And if a clone was made, then the person would only be resurected metaphotically speaking.
  
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  jwfacts

  If you died, but your brain was preserved and many years later implanted or reactivated, would it be you?
  

  That is the JW concept of resurrection. As a JW did you feel it would be the same person?

  I believe consciousness will be able to be transferred in the future. Consciousness is a combination of our thoughts and feelings, an interaction of chemical and electrical processes. Computers are getting to the point where they can think in a similar way to humans, and once this is combined with a reward system then a robot will be conscious in a similar way that humans are.
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  OneEyedJoe

  It seems that this is more a discussion of theseus' paradox than it is anything to do with consciousness specifically.
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  Saintbertholdt

  I read about Stephen Hawkings discussing copying our brain and into a robot to live forever. But lets say that happened right now, your brain was copied and put into a robot...Your consciousness would be dead.

  And to which Village Idiot added:

  Your original you is disassembled into atoms that get transported to another location with an identical, but not original you. The act of disassembling your body is tantamount to death.

  From which the following conclusion can be drawn:

  Stephen Hawking does not posses consciousness.
  
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  Fisherman

  Whether or not there is such a place in the brain or somewhere else that stores a person's identity?? If such information could be copy and pasted, different individuals might be able to experience the same identity and when they interacted with reality the experience should be shared (one example of what should happen, but this is a long topic to consider). Suppose it would not be possible to clone identity because it violated some law of physics sort of speak -same object occupying different spaces at the same time- or because it violated the nature of reality for example colors should not exist, in other words, the dynamics or the mechanism of the nature of reality cannot not be changed, (long topic) but it was possible to transfer the fingerprint of someone to something else, then what?

  a lot of guesses... but we cannot put ourselves into someone else's shoes and experience it unless it happened to us personally and then we might be able to know what it feels like and believe that the illusion of the senses that we experience as reality is our identity experiencing it in something else. OR maybe it is something else beleiving. But even if we did believed it was , would it really be us or something else believing it was us?
  
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  talesin

  The life that died was dead.
  If you died, but your brain was preserved and many years later implanted or reactivated, would it be you? What if information on the brain was moved to another, would you wake up or would it be a new life thinking it was you?

  ** SPOILER ALERT **

  i've already watched this particular episode of The Outer Limits. The brain transfer doesn't work out well.

  (and yes, this was the premise of an episode in the revival series)