Your comment contains an excellent point that can stand independently of Many Worlds (branching all the time). Namely, memory explains anticipation. Anticipation feels like a pointer to the next moment, but it’s just an inference based on a long sequence of memories.
There is nothing wrong with anticipating a future experience, but there is also no constraint against anticipating other future experiences as well. And most of us often do; we call that “empathy”. We have much more reliable history of knowing how correct/incorrect our anticipations about our own body were, though, and much less ability to ignore those outcomes. So self-concern feels different. But in some sense, self-concern is empathy for our future selves.
Just a nitpick, you don’t need many-worlds to have branching. Even in a classical world, if it’s large enough, there will be creatures with identical memories but different futures.
Right, as long as you don’t require causal connection for branching. To my mind “branching” suggests a causal connection, but the OP favors a pattern identity theory, so causal connection may be irrelevant.
Your comment contains an excellent point that can stand independently of Many Worlds (branching all the time). Namely, memory explains anticipation. Anticipation feels like a pointer to the next moment, but it’s just an inference based on a long sequence of memories.
There is nothing wrong with anticipating a future experience, but there is also no constraint against anticipating other future experiences as well. And most of us often do; we call that “empathy”. We have much more reliable history of knowing how correct/incorrect our anticipations about our own body were, though, and much less ability to ignore those outcomes. So self-concern feels different. But in some sense, self-concern is empathy for our future selves.
Just a nitpick, you don’t need many-worlds to have branching. Even in a classical world, if it’s large enough, there will be creatures with identical memories but different futures.
Right, as long as you don’t require causal connection for branching. To my mind “branching” suggests a causal connection, but the OP favors a pattern identity theory, so causal connection may be irrelevant.