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Really interesting subject. I'm more like a forest than an animal! If humans are higher-order animals on top of cells and bacteria (us not caring much about th
by b6 11y ago
Really interesting subject. I'm more like a forest than an animal!
If humans are higher-order animals on top of cells and bacteria (us not caring much about them and them not being aware of us), are humans also the cells of some super-er animals?
Apparently the Buddha said that one of the characteristics of reality is that there is no such thing as "you", no unchanging entity that could be called the perceiver of all these perceptions. I guess we're like the boat whose parts are all replaced over time.
- mikekchar 11y agoYou could imagine that "you" is simply an artefact of memory. Because it creates a sense of continuity, it is an easy place to create a barrier outside of which is "not you". If you could remember other people's thoughts, how would it affect your perception of yourself? Just as a neuron acts in concert with other neurons, but does so independently, so do we act in concert with our surroundings. If not for our memory, that creates identity, how are we separate from the rest of the universe? Though having said that, there are many other explanations which people believe in very strongly. I'm not attempting to challenge those notions. I'm just musing out loud.
- andyl 11y agoWhere does the memory reside? What is it that 'remembers'?
- Natanael_L 11y agoLooking at ants, one might consider that to be the case.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 11y ago> are humans also the cells of some super-er animals? Humans are starting to look slightly more like eusocial insects the last few hundred years than they did previously. I see quite a few sterile worker drones around lately (they congratulate themselves on being DINKs and "childfree").
- sooheon 11y agoTo be fair other animals are also more like forests than "animals", by the same measure.