4 ms·
You're asking a great deal of a single neuron (or even a small set of brain-spanning neurons) if you expect it/them to be you. Functionally speaking, a neuron
by maxander 10y ago
You're asking a great deal of a single neuron (or even a small set of brain-spanning neurons) if you expect it/them to be you. Functionally speaking, a neuron is a bag of sodium and potassium ions that fills and empties itself via various molecular valves, perturbing other little valve bags in the process. That billions of these can instantiate a human personality is fantastic enough in and of itself; the claim that personal identity can be reduced down to some particular little valve bag is utter nonsense.
- T-A 10y agoBut fun nonsense. Imagine if it really were so. Neurons die all the time, in the thousands every day. So one day that particular neuron dies, and you are gone. But nobody else can tell, because the other 100 billion neurons are still doing their thing. They now control an automaton without consciousness which, nevertheless, will emphatically claim to be conscious, should anybody ask. Because we all are, right? :)
- beaconstudios 10y agoPhilosophical zombies are definitely interesting subjects for thought experiments.
- red75prime 10y agoFor incorrect thought experiments. You cannot conceive p-zombie from first point of view, because there's no first point of view for p-zombie. If you conceive p-zombie from third point of view, you cannot be sure that it IS p-zombie, because you aren't God and p-zombie is identical to not-p-zombie from third point of view.
- beaconstudios 10y agoWell, the parents concept was that of a living consciousness becoming a p-zombie, which seems valid to me.
- red75prime 10y agoIf there's no changes in behavior we usually associate with consciousness, then why we decided that those neurons were responsible for consciousness in the first place?
- beaconstudios 10y agotherein lies the problem - we can't detect consciousness from the outside.