Theseus's Human

[Zombiethederg]

So I know I am a bit notorious for making sad posts like this, but this one is less existential and more philosphical, I promise!

Anyhow, I got to thinking. We as people are built of the experiences of others. Whether it be art, advice, interactions, conversations, or relationships. In a way, we are built using many different chunks of experiences that come from others (hence the "Theseus's Human" title of this post).

So then begs the question. For us to be built of the experiences of others, that other person has to have a "self". They are obviously "them" in order to build onto us. So what makes you, you? What makes you have a sense of self? What makes a person have a sense of self?

[invader_gvim]

I think your new profile picture is super cool!

  This is such a thought provoking post. I wish I had a better answer, but just the thought this post inspired was worth it even if I don't get to read much from it.

 

I think of my husband. How much brain damage would he have to get before he was no longer the same person? Obviously I'd take care of him even if he was brain dead, its just that I'd be taking care of a different person potentially. I feel like this is a question you would have to be a brain scientist to answer. Just because I poke around in there with my tools and saws doesnt make me a scientist. 

How much volume of brain are we talking about here? 1 cubic inch? 8 cubic inches? Is it one very specific part of the brain? How much brain needs to be cut out and preserved in a jar before that bit of brain is more valuable than the body it came from (assuming both are kept alive.)

I asked my husband (who is more knowledgable than me about brain stuff because he researches JFK a lot) and he said that reducing it all down to inches of brain mass is a reductionist view so now I'm more confused.

Who am I? What is me? Well I feel emotions and I have the ability to recognize those emotions as things I experience. I also have the ability to make plans and I have a sense of aesthetics. I also have a set of other senses major and minor that make up this Irken Gvimader.

I feel like this means that I am not a thing but rather a collection of things. If you smash a bee in a swarm then it is still a swarm of bees. Similarly if you remove my capacity for emotions then I can still plan and probably even maintian a conversation. In my opinion I'd still be me. If you added another ability to me, such as a superpower, then I would also still be me.

So another awesome consequence of this thought experiment u encouraged is that I now realize that my personal sense of self has a lot more in common with a swarm of bees than I realized. 

[Misanthropic Monster™]

This is one of the most existential questions I've asked myself a lot over my own lifetime and it haunts me to consider. All our self really boils down to, is a collection of memories and experiences which - when we cease - expire along with us. Nobody else can ever truly know our thoughts, feelings and perspectives. The fragments in our mind that make up our past, the things that moulded who we are... all gone once we die. Other people can have their own perceptions of who you are, but they are all different versions of the true self you know and have intimately experienced for your entire life of being you.   

[Junebug]

My answer is continuity. I am not really the person I was fifteen years ago, nor the person I was ten years ago, nor five years ago, and yet at each point in time that person is recognizably me, because there is continuity between all those people. So as to not make this circular, the me's at any instant is composed of memories and impulses, the latter of which may come from previous memories but other times simply are, existing as is rather than coming from anywhere.

Basically, 90% history and 10% what happens to you simply by being yourself.