I'd like to hear your thoughts on reincarnation
Alright then. As I mentioned in my last post, no physical traits would/should get carried over. Due to the mechanism for reincarnation being entirely subjective, rather than a literal reforming of matter. And given that I also hold that personality, memory, etc. are all physical (as determined by science), it's safe to say that 'reincarnation' as I use it is a bit different from the standard religious concept.Now, I mentioned before that I'd describe myself as 'ignostic', which in general means that I reserve judgement until a clear definition of the terms in question are supplied. This goes for 'soul', 'god', and other such unclear terms. Though for casual conversation, I'd say most of my views line up with the typical atheist fare. Except, of course, on this reincarnation bit, along with some other unrelated stuff.
Most atheists would generally have a hard time accepting a reincarnation, unless it was over a long period of time, the same matter happening to form in the same way, and so on (a literal recreation of the same collection of matter). However, I disagree with this, for one big reason: it implies a metaphysical "thing" that is somehow created (and later destroyed) based on an arbitrary collection of matter that somehow not only transcends time, but is unique for every individual. I find this hard to buy. The other alternative is to reject the subjective experience in it's entirety (which I've seen people do!) Again, I fail to reject this. Primarily due to personal experience.
So, now on to the rationale.
Starting from the concept that more or less that identity is a metaphysical label to a collection of physical matter, we can easily accept that moving this label around, or applying it to something else would work fine. That is, the gradual replacement experiments would be a success, and the 'new' collection would have the old label. Likewise, we can see that the subjective experience works in a fundamentally similar way. it's an evoked characteristic of a variety of collections of matter. Again, this idea isn't too far off from the typical atheist tale. You have matter give rise to a subjective being, which then observes that collection of matter and related content.
However, you run into a problem. With this narrative, there must be no continuity. As two different sets of matter cannot (or should not) give rise to the same entity if we are to call them unique. That is, matter X/Y/Z gives rise to subjective experience R. And matter A/B/C gives rise to subjective experience S. R and S are obviously not the same (under this narrative). However, when we account for the fact that past/future you SHOULD give the same result, we arrive at a contradiction. See, A/B/C should give rise to R, if this were to be true. That is, working of a strictly physical narrative, we arrive at the issue of transcending time (past you is the same as present you, just at a different 'time'). This means one of a few things:
1. Every subjective experience evoked is identical.
2. There's a metaphysical/non-physical explanation for the subjective experience.
3. Past/Present/Future you are completely separate and unique subjective experiences.
4. The subjective experience doesn't actually exist.
4 is rejected in our initial premises. It's something I don't think can be proven, but should be something most everyone accepts. I think therefore I am, and that sort of thing. If you accept 4, I think it's safe to say you are a "philosophical zombie" (A human that's identical to the rest, but lacks a subjective experience, and the perception of qualia). This isn't satisfying to me, as I personally am aware of the subjective experience (it's what I'd define myself as). So that's out.
3 is rejected, on the notion that there's a clear continuity of the subjective experience. We don't continually see a single "frame" forever. We have an illusion of time. Which means that the past/present/future versions of this entity must be somehow connected. More on that in a minute.
2 is rejected, based on the fact that we know pretty much everything about this subjective experience is tied to physical matter. Keep in mind from before, how sensory info, and being aware of that info are two separate things, both affected by physical matter. It's safe to say that it's all physically tied. At best we can say the subjective experience itself is metaphysical/non-physical, but is evoked via physical means.
And ultimately we arrive at 1. Which is that every evocation of this subjective experience is indeed identical. That is, it's physically tied, but in every instance it's the same subjective experience. This allows the physically distinct past/present you's to be "the same person", and it also allows you to hold that everything is physically tied (as we observe in experiments). This also is consistent with the identity thought experiments, as well as the fluidity of identity itself (that the subjective experience functions the same as identity itself).
But ultimately it comes with the major caveat that every instance is the same. Meaning that other people are about as 'you' as past 'you' is. To give a more accurate statement, every evocation of consciousness at every point in time is simultaneously subjectively experienced. And the linear narrative we find ourselves in is due to human memory, tying back to older versions of the same physical matter. Or rather, possible older versions of the same physical matter, and viewing various possible (and probable) outcomes. Amusingly, this view is ALSO supported by the recent wheeler's delayed choice experiments.
So now what about reincarnation, you ask? That's how this whole system should appear subjectively. That is, you are born, perceive a series of events that are possible to observe from that state, play them all out until the chain 'ends' (death). And then pick yet another chain to perceive. This isn't quite the case, since it's all done simultaneously, but that should be the perspective of the viewer. Really, after death would be the same as before death. Just.... from a different viewpoint. A good way of imagining it is to pretend you are dead right now, just in the future. Since that's what it'll be like, just later. I find "reincarnation" to be the best description of this idea.
This all ties in with my other views on the universe, time, and all that fun stuff. But I think I've more or less hit everything on my views on the subjective experience. The only thing I really haven't worked out is the chronological ordering and viewing of these individual evocations. That is, "why Kafke"? Why 'me'?
And on that note, I actually had a pretty interesting discussion with another user (elsewhere on the internet), who proposed a sort of pattern evocation. Which certainly seems like an interesting idea, and fits with some of my other observations. And would easily fit in with what I've described above. I simply haven't accepted it because I haven't found any sure-fire way of knowing that it's the case (and deducing it independently).
The thing I like about the stuff I just described is that it all fits in perfectly with the rest of my views, and was more or less easily deduced by things I already hold true about the world.
PaulaJedi, IIRC shortterm memory has a general location, while longterm specializes.
