RE: Why am I me?
October 15, 2012 at 3:40 pm
(This post was last modified: October 15, 2012 at 3:43 pm by marksesl.)
(October 13, 2010 at 8:03 pm)R-e-n-n-a-t Wrote: I am not falling into a theist trap; I understand that I am the result of evolved electrical and chemical signals in my brain. That's not the point. The point more or less, in a dumbed-down version for people below this philosophical point (yes, whoever said "theist trap", you annoyed me) is why now? That's a simpler way of putting it. And don't just answer "because now is now", or "why not". That's also not the point. Of all the people who had lived before, now they are all unaware and dead, obviously. But I am not; I am currently aware, as are you all. I'm not asking "why are people aware?"; I'm asking "How is it me who is aware of myself at this time from a 1st person POV." I'm sure most of you have the ability to grasp this question, you probably just never thought to think of it in the imaginary terms that I now see it.
(October 13, 2010 at 3:04 am)ib.me.ub Wrote: You can only be yourself.
Yes, it will be.
Because of evolution.
You are one of many.
The conditions are correct.
Our time is now.
?
OK, you definitely missed the point. This question flew right over your head; I'm not religious, I know all of what you said and I understand it. I'm asking something else entirely.
I give up trying to explain; you just have to be able to conceptualize the question yourself I guess. Most of you seem to have missed the point and think I'm asking why I'm me, or why I'm conscious. That's not the point.
The reason you are alive now is because it's impossible to be dead from a 1st person perspective. You are alive because there is no other state one can be in. Life is an inescapable perennial phenomenon due to the impossibility of existing as nothing. Why you are the specific person you are is either determined by mere chance or some specific cause. Buddhists, contrary to popular belief, do not believe in reincarnation, but that one life just determines the next. Each life is still a new life as a new person. So, the reason you are you could have been determined in such a manner from a previous life. Also, some theoretical physicists feel there is reason to believe that consciousness extends right down to elementary particles. So, perhaps when we die we still have some input as to what new life we will have in that sea of proto-conscious particles. If you reject such ideas, then you must accept who we are is just random chance and leave it at that.
