4 ms·

Is the person from before you last slept the same you? How do you know?

• smeej 2y ago
  If not, I should have had to do something with her body when I woke up where she went to sleep.
  • kelnos 2y ago
    I don't think that's the thought experiment. We're not talking about physical bodies, we're talking about consciousness. When you go to sleep, does your consciousness cease to exist, to be replaced with a new one, with all your memories and behaviors and attitudes, when you wake up? I have memories of being me and doing me things yesterday, but was that really me doing those things, or was that a different consciousness that doesn't exist anymore, and my memories are just the high-fidelity recorded experiences of someone else? And on top of it all: if that's the case, does it matter?
    • smeej 2y ago
      I don't think consciousness exists separate from the body, so this sounds to me like a contradiction in terms more than an actual thought experiment. It's the kind of thing a technologist can propose because the syntax of the sentences makes sense, but from a philosophical one, it's no more a "thought experiment" than a 4-sided triangle. There's a 1:1 relationship of consciousnesses and bodies they can possibly inhabit, and we do not now and never have had evidence to the contrary.