(September 13, 2009 at 12:53 am)Eilonnwy Wrote:(September 13, 2009 at 12:48 am)theVOID Wrote: I don't think every aspect of what would be considered your 'personal mind' would be dead though, there is also the genetic aspect to contend with, but i agree for the most part, you would in a sense be dead to those familiar with how you were.
Then again it could be more like the computer and the Operating system. My machine is still the same, doesn't matter if it's running XP, 7 or Linux. The virtual characteristics have changed but the machine is one and the same. I assume our virtual mind works the same.
What specific genetic aspect are you referring to? I am not a neuroscientist, so I could be completely wrong, but it's my understanding that our sense of self comes from our brain regulated by chemicals, etc.. So if that chemical balance is completed altered by a severe trauma, does that not change the genetic factors of your personality? Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Putting it all down to chemicals oversimplifies a great deal, there is also the physical topology of the brain as well as genetic information in the genome that is known as a few different things, Carl Jung first dubbed them Racial memory and cultural memory, there is also Birth memory which is a memory acquired without sensory experience or remembering the way we do normally.
Memory can also be inherited through meiosis and mitosis, again related to cultural and racial memory.
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