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So am I going to live again.

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  • 27-05-2010 6:07pm
    #1
    login1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 38 ✭


    After I die can I be somebody else. A person a fly a dog whatever.

    There are trillions of living things on this planet but all of them apart from me are others.

    Will every living thing born in this universe always be an other - and not a me.

    Is this body the only me than ever could or ever will be in all of creation.

    Why can't i be a me in a different body


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    #2
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,059 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    login1 wrote: »
    After I die can I be somebody else. A person a fly a dog whatever.

    Since no-one has been back to tell us, you will have to wait and see
    There are trillions of living things on this planet but all of them apart from me are others.

    Well yes, unless you can bilocate
    Will every living thing born in this universe always be an other - and not a me.

    You already are a you, every other thing born will be an other.
    Is this body the only me than ever could or ever will be in all of creation.

    Is your body 'you', or is something else less tangible 'you'. But, see point one, we don't know whether 'we' are recycled. I suppose you could argue that since (as I understand) atoms are recycled, ie, there are no new ones - I'm not sure about that 'fact', the atoms that are your body could be recycled into another body - though it would be the 'give a hundred monkeys a hundred typewriters, etc' situation
    Why can't i be a me in a different body

    Maybe you are, but you haven't been given the knowledge of it.


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    #3
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,727 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    login1 wrote: »
    Is this body the only me than ever could or ever will be in all of creation.

    Why can't i be a me in a different body
    Humans have 23 chromosome pairs

    2 to the power of 23 is 8,388,608

    but even if your parents had 8 million kids there are other effects like crossing over as well as mutations which means that even your parents are very unlikely to ever have another child with the same DNA as you

    The Nature vs. Nurture argument is about whether genes or upbringing shapes your character, in either event blame the parents ; but as some old dead guy said you can't step into the same river twice. Even if your parents had a child with the same genes as you and tried to raise you in the same way there would still be differences.

    Identical twins aren't identical.

    It's said we are a bag of memories. And different people will have different memories. Pavlov showed with the dogs that they could be conditioned to salivate when a bell rang. So behaviour depends on experiance too. There was a flood and some of the dogs were nearly drowned and the near death experience caused the dogs to loose the conditioning. This shows that the conditioning isn't permanent, so even if you could program a clone of yourself with your responses then future events could change the clones behaviour.



    Even if you could create a clone with the same DNA and same life experiences as you the nature of quantum mechanics means that there will always be differences.


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    #4
    silverharp
    Registered Users Posts: 17,840 ✭✭✭✭silverharp


    Capt'n Midnight wrote: »
    Even if you could create a clone with the same DNA and same life experiences as you the nature of quantum mechanics means that there will always be differences.

    So, would you allow yourself to be teleported Star Trek style?

    A belief in gender identity involves a level of faith as there is nothing tangible to prove its existence which, as something divorced from the physical body, is similar to the idea of a soul. - Colette Colfer



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    #5
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,727 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    silverharp wrote: »
    So, would you allow yourself to be teleported Star Trek style?
    No way !

    that technobabble about Heisenberg compensators doesn't change the fact that it's a replica with your memories that gets created at the other end.
    Dr Leonard McCoy wrote:
    I signed on this ship to practice medicine, not to have my atoms scattered back and forth across space by this gadget

    See also the bit about cloning in The Hitchhikers Guide


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    #6
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,354 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    login1 wrote: »
    After I die can I be somebody else. A person a fly a dog whatever.
    in what sense could a fly be you, in that a fly doesn't have a personality (in a human sense, anyway), so how you it retain what makes you you?


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    #7
    mcmoustache
    Registered Users Posts: 7,237 ✭✭✭mcmoustache


    Capt'n Midnight wrote: »
    No way !

    that technobabble about Heisenberg compensators doesn't change the fact that it's a replica with your memories that gets created at the other end.

    That's the mad bit. They have to kill you and then put you back together. You wouldn't just leave one place and appear somewhere else.


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    #8
    login1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 38 ✭login1


    I'm pretty sure nobody can tell me why they are alive and conscience


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    #9
    login1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 38 ✭login1


    I'll clarify that by saying you are not your DNA -twins have the same dna but different people.

    You are not your physical brain - your brain at 60 I doubt would have even 1 molecule that your brain at 3 had but you were always you.

    So can anyone tell me what does make you alive and conscious and an individual alive and looking out at the world, and always be you.


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    #10
    Beeker
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,643 Mod ✭✭✭✭Beeker


    login1 wrote: »
    I'll clarify that by saying you are not your DNA -twins have the same dna but different people.

    You are not your physical brain - your brain at 60 I doubt would have even 1 molecule that your brain at 3 had but you were always you.

    So can anyone tell me what does make you alive and conscious and an individual alive and looking out at the world, and always be you.
    That would be the million dollar question:)
    I would say that you are your memories. They are what make you...you:confused: I think:confused:


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    #11
    luckyfrank
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,054 ✭✭✭luckyfrank


    login1 wrote: »
    I'm pretty sure nobody can tell me why they are alive and conscience


    I THINK THEREFORE I AM


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    #12
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,727 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Beeker wrote: »
    That would be the million dollar question:)
    I would say that you are your memories. They are what make you...you:confused: I think:confused:
    who was it that said we are a bag of memories ?

    the our brains are wired changes all the time as we learn more and the way we interact with our environment changes all the time as we get positive and negative feedback.


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    #13
    Rubecula
    Registered Users Posts: 8,551 ✭✭✭Rubecula


    I suppose it all depends on what you believe, or it does until you know for certain, and if you never know, then you are not reborn I think??

    But something that may (or may not) give some comfort:

    Nature wastes nothing, at least physically, everything in biology is recycled time and time again. Who is to say that your "mentality" is not also recycled in some way?


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