Why am I, me? And you, you?

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by Norsefire, Aug 5, 2008.

  1. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    If our consciousness and self awareness comes from our brains, how do you explain the fact that there are individual consciousnesses?
    Let me explain: I am self aware and conscious, within myself and my body. And you are the same within your body. However, why am I not conscious or self aware, within your body?

    Why didn't my consciousness and selfawareness exist within the bodies of long ago? The brains were available, so why wasn't I conscious?
     
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  3. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    You don't have a body, you are a body. Your perceptions are limited to your own nerves. There is, as yet, no connections between brains.
     
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  5. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    I know. However, what I am asking is, why was my consciousness not the bodies of long ago?
     
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  7. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    It is an aspect of your body. Your body had to go through the process of dying and decomposing before it's elements and nutrients could possibly be incorporated into a new body. No memories could survive that.
     
  8. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    However why wasn't I a conscious being a thousand years ago?
     
  9. ashura the Old Right Registered Senior Member

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    Any conscious being, or one that extends into your consciousness today ie. you today having memories that are 1000 years old?
     
  10. jessiej920 Shake them dice and roll 'em Valued Senior Member

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    I get what you mean...I've thought about this question before, but it just spins my fucking head in circles. Why am I conscious of me? Who am I? Why am I not conscious of you? Why does my brain make me conscious of who I am, but not who you are? AHHHHHH! Don't stop and think, just go with it. Brains do funny things to you.
     
  11. ashura the Old Right Registered Senior Member

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    If consciousness is tied to body, why would you share the consciousness of another body?
     
  12. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    Consciousness is tied to your brain; however, what is the deciding factor that makes my cosciousness part of me, and not yours?

    i.e, why am I not conscious in your body?
     
  13. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Because your definition of "I" is limited.
     
  14. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    I as in, myself. I am conscious of myself in my body. But why is my consciousness not in your body?

    Does this support the idea of reincarnation or souls?
     
  15. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    My brain's signals aren't connected to yours.
     
  16. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    I know; however why is your consciousness in your brain?

    What determines "who" is in each brain? Why am I not you?
     
  17. Myles Registered Senior Member

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    You are making the mistake of thinking that consciousness has an existence independent of your brain. It does not. Your brain is a part of your body, a physical entity. No brain, no consciousnerss. As you are not me , you cannot be aware/ conscious of what it is to be me.
     
  18. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    But you are conscious. Even if consciousness is linked to the brain, again, why am I not your consciousness?
     
  19. Myles Registered Senior Member

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    I have answered your question. Read my post again and think about it. Personal consciousness is specific to a particular brain. You might as well ask why your left foot is not my left foot.
     
  20. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    My consciousness isn't "in" my brain, it is the action of the brain, it is the brain at work.
     
  21. Cyperium I'm always me Valued Senior Member

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    This is called the "hard problem". Scientists will probably never get it.

    I've tried this circle of questions with 'scientists' before, they think differently regarding the matter, but I know you understand what they have missed (otherwise you wouldn't be so stubborn asking those questions would you).



    There seems to be a "selection process", of some kind, since if two individuals were born at exactly the same time, and had exactly the same brain arrangements and body arrangements, then still there had to be a selection of "who goes in who" so to speak.

    Cause each can still ask "why was I not in your body instead".

    I know that two persons probably will never be born exactly identical, but it is possible, and this gives that reality must have a solution, and if it has a solution to this special case, then that solution is probably the case for every human, not regarding whether there are identical ones (why would the universe care about that?).

    I don't think it is the body that determines the selection process, since we had to think about what part of the body makes us unique, and most would say "the brain", but then what part of the brain? And some might say some place in the brain, but the closer we come to the core of it, the more chance it is that there are repeated patterns and as such if only that part was identical in any other human, then all this "everything is physical" falls apart, since one cannot be in two persons.
     
  22. Myles Registered Senior Member

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    The hard problem is you !

    You say you know that " two persons probably will never be born identical" and then go on to say it is possible. Why do you think so ?


    The selection process, as you call it, is taken care of by a sperm and an ovum, containing genetic infotmation. There is no hard problem here. It's all in your mind.
     
  23. fadingCaptain are you a robot? Valued Senior Member

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    Consciousness is an emergent property of our brains. Have you ever witnessed a birth or been around newborns? They are not self aware and fully conscious (as we are using the terms). Who you are is not something injected to you at birth. It is not a soul. It is a function of your brains physical and chemical makeup which includes all your memory. It is constantly developing and changing. You are not who you were a year ago.

    Why aren't we someone else's body? Because we are our body. Your body is asking the question.
     

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