4 ms·

>Still. why did this inner eye spawn in this head we are in? There are 8 billion heads, why this one? I get what you are saying, but honestly that question doe

>Still. why did this inner eye spawn in this head we are in? There are 8 billion heads, why this one? I get what you are saying, but honestly that question doesn't make sense. You are this one because that is how your brain developed.. just like you physically look how you are because of how your body developed. To say "why am I how I am" to me is no different than "why do I look this way?" >Can it be explained physically? Well.. if I smash you in the head with a hammer, your "consciousness" would most likely be affected because I damaged your brain, right? Seems pretty straightforward that we can indirectly say that yes it can be explained physically. We may not be able to explain the details.. but seems like we can say it's just simply what our brain evolved to do. Just like how our physical looks evolved for various reasons / chance.

foobarian 5y ago
The question is, why did the FPV-experiencing consciousness happen to bind to the body you are in? And why does it stick? I guess it would be interesting to look at why it persists through sleep. And whether there were ever instances of people who wake up with different personalities. Also edge cases around coma/near-death restarts. Or maybe things work like coroutines, and no matter which thread you get assigned to the state is all in the context. I mean it looks like that is 99.9% the case given what we know about memory formation, physical brain structures etc.
- webmaven 5y ago
  > The question is, why did the FPV-experiencing consciousness happen to bind to the body you are in? And why does it stick? You're asking questions equivalent to "why does the interior of a box happen to bind to that particular piece of folded cardboard? And why is the same interior there when the box is closed and reopened?" If each brain has a consciousness, and each is uniquely generated by that brain, the 'binding' and 'sticking' questions go away.
  - foobarian 5y ago
    That line of explanation doesn't do it for me, because there is only one brain that has my FPV consciousness. Why this particular one? I think it's a question related to the topics of breaking symmetry, or nondeterminism. It's also a great unsolved question that many smarter people than me couldn't answer so I'm not hopeful I'll live to see it answered. But I will continue to wonder at it now and then, like when articles like this pop up. :-)
    - webmaven 5y ago
      I think you aren't understanding the answers we're giving you. There is no difference between asking "why does my brain have my consciousness" and asking "why does my head have my face". It is exactly the same question.
    - chasd00 5y ago
      > there is only one brain that has my FPV consciousness. Why this particular one? to me, the answer is because you were born with that one. Maybe it's better to think about how your FPV consciousness didn't exist prior to your birth. It came into being when you came into being. I don't think there's a separation between your FPV consciousness and physical brain. If your metabolism stops your FPV consciousness stops
      - spookthesunset 5y ago
        > Maybe it's better to think about how your FPV consciousness didn't exist prior to your birth That is unknowable though. You may just not remember it. Is memory what makes consciousness?
        webmaven 5y ago
        People can lose the ability to form new memories without losing consciousness, but arguably without any memory at all you won't have any continuity of experience, which seems essential.
    - 5y ago

foobarian 5y ago

The question is, why did the FPV-experiencing consciousness happen to bind to the body you are in? And why does it stick? I guess it would be interesting to look at why it persists through sleep. And whether there were ever instances of people who wake up with different personalities. Also edge cases around coma/near-death restarts. Or maybe things work like coroutines, and no matter which thread you get assigned to the state is all in the context. I mean it looks like that is 99.9% the case given what we know about memory formation, physical brain structures etc.

webmaven 5y ago
> The question is, why did the FPV-experiencing consciousness happen to bind to the body you are in? And why does it stick? You're asking questions equivalent to "why does the interior of a box happen to bind to that particular piece of folded cardboard? And why is the same interior there when the box is closed and reopened?" If each brain has a consciousness, and each is uniquely generated by that brain, the 'binding' and 'sticking' questions go away.
- foobarian 5y ago
  That line of explanation doesn't do it for me, because there is only one brain that has my FPV consciousness. Why this particular one? I think it's a question related to the topics of breaking symmetry, or nondeterminism. It's also a great unsolved question that many smarter people than me couldn't answer so I'm not hopeful I'll live to see it answered. But I will continue to wonder at it now and then, like when articles like this pop up. :-)
  - webmaven 5y ago
    I think you aren't understanding the answers we're giving you. There is no difference between asking "why does my brain have my consciousness" and asking "why does my head have my face". It is exactly the same question.
  - chasd00 5y ago
    > there is only one brain that has my FPV consciousness. Why this particular one? to me, the answer is because you were born with that one. Maybe it's better to think about how your FPV consciousness didn't exist prior to your birth. It came into being when you came into being. I don't think there's a separation between your FPV consciousness and physical brain. If your metabolism stops your FPV consciousness stops
    - spookthesunset 5y ago
      > Maybe it's better to think about how your FPV consciousness didn't exist prior to your birth That is unknowable though. You may just not remember it. Is memory what makes consciousness?
      - webmaven 5y ago
        People can lose the ability to form new memories without losing consciousness, but arguably without any memory at all you won't have any continuity of experience, which seems essential.
  - 5y ago