This is a pseudo-problem arising from equivocation about the indexical “I”. You can either use it to refer to yourself as a continuant (an entire space-time worm) or as a momentary object (a temporal part of the space-time worm). Just make sure you’re not mixing the two uses. I think that is what is causing your puzzlement. To dissolve it, let’s focus on the momentary object use of “I”.
Don’t think of your consciousness as somehow moving from step 1 to 2 to 3 and so on. I think it might be better to start out thinking that there are separate objects, separate XiXiDus, at each of these steps. Each one of those momentary-XiXiDu’s is fully conscious. When any one of them says “I”, they are referring to themselves, so “I” in the mouth of each momentary-XiXiDu refers to a different object. Also, when they say “now” they are referring to different times. Thought of that way, there is no mystery when each momentary XiXiDu says “I am here now.” Where else would he (she?) be?
The problem arises because the psychological states of all the momentary-XiXiDu’s are related in a way that makes each one think that he is the only one and that he has been moving through time. So the momentary-XiXiDu at step 3 thinks “I was at 1 and I will be at 7, but I’m now at 3. Why?” Really what’s going on is that XiXiDu-3′s “now” is step 3, just as XiXiDu-1′s “now” is step 1. In some sense XiXiDu-3 is right to say he “was” at step 1, if this is interpreted as him bearing a certain relationship to XiXiDu-1. The mistake is that XiXiDu-3 thinks he is identical to XiXidu-1, and so since he is at step 3, XiXiDu-1 can’t be at step 1. After all, how can a single momentary object be at both step-3 and step-1? Well, it can’t, but this is not a problem, since XiXiDu-3 is not in fact identical to XiXiDu-1.
Over short enough time, each bit of me is out of communication with each other bit of me. In light of this, is it still reasonable to think of a momentary consciousness?
This is a pseudo-problem arising from equivocation about the indexical “I”. You can either use it to refer to yourself as a continuant (an entire space-time worm) or as a momentary object (a temporal part of the space-time worm). Just make sure you’re not mixing the two uses. I think that is what is causing your puzzlement. To dissolve it, let’s focus on the momentary object use of “I”.
Don’t think of your consciousness as somehow moving from step 1 to 2 to 3 and so on. I think it might be better to start out thinking that there are separate objects, separate XiXiDus, at each of these steps. Each one of those momentary-XiXiDu’s is fully conscious. When any one of them says “I”, they are referring to themselves, so “I” in the mouth of each momentary-XiXiDu refers to a different object. Also, when they say “now” they are referring to different times. Thought of that way, there is no mystery when each momentary XiXiDu says “I am here now.” Where else would he (she?) be?
The problem arises because the psychological states of all the momentary-XiXiDu’s are related in a way that makes each one think that he is the only one and that he has been moving through time. So the momentary-XiXiDu at step 3 thinks “I was at 1 and I will be at 7, but I’m now at 3. Why?” Really what’s going on is that XiXiDu-3′s “now” is step 3, just as XiXiDu-1′s “now” is step 1. In some sense XiXiDu-3 is right to say he “was” at step 1, if this is interpreted as him bearing a certain relationship to XiXiDu-1. The mistake is that XiXiDu-3 thinks he is identical to XiXidu-1, and so since he is at step 3, XiXiDu-1 can’t be at step 1. After all, how can a single momentary object be at both step-3 and step-1? Well, it can’t, but this is not a problem, since XiXiDu-3 is not in fact identical to XiXiDu-1.
Over short enough time, each bit of me is out of communication with each other bit of me. In light of this, is it still reasonable to think of a momentary consciousness?