Michael, I think I understand what Nick and Matthew are saying, but if I don’t I hope they or you jump in with a barrier-aesthetic/hide-the-ball denuded explanation. I think they’re claiming something like onesself is always changing, or that it’s arbitrarily defined where one’s self ends and other phenomena in apparently reality begins, or that any concept of self becomes absurdly messy under sustained scrutiny. That’s all fine and dandy as far as analysis and descriptions go, but I’m a bit skeptical that they’re right, since as best I can tell the analysis has been done by a couple of people with 3 pound primate brains in a rather enormous and complex apparent reality. If they want to end their lives tonight and bequest all their personal wealth to me (I’ll come out of anonymity for that), I’ll accept that as their decision, and give it a good college try to have their “selves” live on through a “shared awareness” that exists between my ears. But as for me, I’ll still be trying to MMPOOP, rather conservatively, in something closer to its present form of organization. I understand my odds of success may be vanishingly low, but I’m happy to collaborate with similarly inclined folks on this blog or elsewhere.
Michael, I think I understand what Nick and Matthew are saying, but if I don’t I hope they or you jump in with a barrier-aesthetic/hide-the-ball denuded explanation. I think they’re claiming something like onesself is always changing, or that it’s arbitrarily defined where one’s self ends and other phenomena in apparently reality begins, or that any concept of self becomes absurdly messy under sustained scrutiny. That’s all fine and dandy as far as analysis and descriptions go, but I’m a bit skeptical that they’re right, since as best I can tell the analysis has been done by a couple of people with 3 pound primate brains in a rather enormous and complex apparent reality. If they want to end their lives tonight and bequest all their personal wealth to me (I’ll come out of anonymity for that), I’ll accept that as their decision, and give it a good college try to have their “selves” live on through a “shared awareness” that exists between my ears. But as for me, I’ll still be trying to MMPOOP, rather conservatively, in something closer to its present form of organization. I understand my odds of success may be vanishingly low, but I’m happy to collaborate with similarly inclined folks on this blog or elsewhere.