[whatnow37373]

Then there is the beautiful issue of memory: maybe you are X consciousnesses but only one leaves a memory trace?

Consciousness and memory are two very different things. Don’t think too much about this when you have to undergo surgery. Maybe you are aware during the process but only memory-formation is blocked.

[mikelevins]

Or perhaps they all leave traces, but all write to the same log? And when reconstructing memory from the log, each constructed consciousness experiences itself as singular?

[whatnow37373]

Which one controls the body? There is a problem there. You can’t just have a bunch of disembodied consciousnesses. Well, maybe.. but that sounds kind of strange.

[mikelevins]

What makes you think a singular consciousness controls the body?

[whatnow37373]

It’s a single narrative that controls the body is what I mean. If one consciousness says “I am Peter” then other consciousnesses would know that and be conflicted about, if they don’t call themselves that.

What I mean is that a single narrative “wins”, not a multitude. This has to be explained somehow.

[mikelevins]

How do you know there aren't several different consciousnesses that all think they are Peter?

How do you know they aren't just constructing whatever narrative they prefer to construct from the common pool of memory, ending up with what looks like a single narrative because the parts of the narrative come from the same pool and get written back to the same pool?

Perhaps each consciousness is just a process, like other bodily processes.

Perhaps a human being is less like a machine with a master control and more like an ecosystem of cooperating processes.

Of course, the consciousnesses like to claim to be in charge, but I don't see why I should take their word for it.

[whatnow37373]

No matter how you twist it at some point two consciousnesses differentiate on some contradictory issue maybe not name, but surely they differ on some issue otherwise they wouldn’t be .. different consciousnesses. Life as a human moves and is narrated as a single story, not the story of a thousand processes.

If that were true I can call my heart a process, my liver, etc. They are in a way part of me but they do not just ex nihilo cohere into a single narrative. That is an active process and whatever does that is the only really interesting one (IMO). So I think there might be a bunch of processes, sub personalities maybe, but there remains the problem of integration. Whatever integrates is the one that really fascinates me.

Anyway, thanks for indulging me. It is hard to go into any depth in this medium. I think you have really interesting ideas. Have a nice weekend.