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paul Ashton

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A statement rephrased as a question: I think therefore what am I?

Am I my connectome?

A spiritual force of change?

Chaotic self-organization?

A vessel for an ecosystem?

Can you answer this question for yourself? What are we?

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  • Luke Monahan

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    Jul 28 2012: I prefer to say; "I am experiencing existence therefore I must exist".

    What is in question is my nature and the nature of that which is around me. I could be a robot or an alien without knowing it. I could be a computer program in a simulation. I could be exactly what I appear to be. I could be any other 1 of an infinite number of possible things whilst unaware of my true nature.

    Whatever my true nature happens to be, I still exist.

    By extension, I would argue that everyone I interact with must exist because I am experiencing their existence.

    Again, it is their nature which is questionable. They could be as little as a set of misfiring neurons in my brain during a hallucination but a set of misfiring neurons in my brain are still a thing, therefore, they exist.

    Beyond this point everything is an assumption of necessity based on the observed patterns of my experience.

    To answer you question though;

    I believe I am more than my physical construct because I don't believe that the consciousness i experience can be built or programmed. If I am no more than my physical presence then I am a biological robot but no matter how complex a program gets, you cannot program a consciousness.

    ...

    As I said though, this is just an assumption of necessity.

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