3 ms·
To my mind (pardon the pun) what he's doing ultimately boils down to the study of personal identity. What does it mean to 'me'? What does it mean to be 'you'?
by maroonblazer 9y ago
To my mind (pardon the pun) what he's doing ultimately boils down to the study of personal identity.
What does it mean to 'me'? What does it mean to be 'you'? What are those differences really? What makes the 'me' of 10 years ago the same or different from the 'me' of this morning? And of the 'me' 20 years from now?
That, to me, is the really interesting question. And Derek Parfit basically answered it.
- truculation 9y agoThe way I see it is that my identity is a set of fallible memories which are stored in my brain. If I write some of those memories down in a notebook, journal or diary, have I extended my mind? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see how. If I write about the first house I grew up in, and then forget all about it, can that old notebook recognise the extant building? If I hold the closed notebook in my hand, waft it around a bit, will we recognise the house? For recognition to happen there has to be some matching or prediction of sensory data by memory data. All of which takes place in a fairly small volume and time window, within the brain. Extended body, yes. Extended memory, yes. 'Extended mind', not so much. Not yet.
- AgentME 9y agoIf I disconnect and remove the part of my brain that holds my memory of my house, and walk in front of my house while holding that part of my brain in my hand as lumpy inert matter that's not understood/wired to the rest of me, we won't recognize the house either. A notebook is swap space that has to be causally linked to you somehow (through your eyes, etc) to be useful just like a part of your brain has to be linked to you (generally through direct wiring).