I have had a disturbing question that popped into my mind lately that has kept me up thinking about it.

For starters, ask yourself this. If you woke up in a different place, with a lifetime of memories about that place - how would ever know you lived a life somewhere else?

Second, if one day we are ever able to replicate entire brains, suppose that there is a clone created of you. Not only is this clone created, but he/she has all of your memories, identical to you in every way - including the neurons in your brain.

Which one of you is the real one?

You would say you are, but if the clone contains all of the same memories as you - then the clone would think that you are the clone.

Next, what if at one point cybernetics reach the point where artificial neurons or computer microchips are created to replace organic neurons. What if all of the memories and experiences of your brain were transferred to a artificial brain?

Are you the same person - or a different one? Do you cease to exist when the memories move from the biological neurons to the artificial ones?

What is it that defines a person?

Is it their memories and experiences. Or is it something more? Do we exist only in one body, one mind? If all the information in our brains were transferred to a computer - do we continue to exist inside that computer or do we cease to exist when the neurons in our brain do not function?

What are we really?

I've pondered this on and off, and apart from the physical structure of the brain being different depending on our experiences, I believe we are all running the same 'software' and our bodies are merely the 'hardware' to carry it.

I suppose another thought experiment would be the transporters in Star Trek, or the film The Fly. If you are taken apart and reconstructed elsewhere, is that really you? Would memories survive the transport?

Our identity seems to be made up of what we look like, what we say, where we live, who we hang out with, how we dress, our tastes in music and culture. In fact I've seen quite compulsive behaviour in myself and others in which things you identify yourself with (bands, games, films) just have to be bought and displayed. A very similar and important animal behaviour comes from the Bowyer (sp?) bird. This bird builds a thatched half-dome like nest that is more a house than nest. It will collect moss and push it into the ground around the outside of its house which looks like its creating a lawn. It then goes and picks up things of a certain colour and creates a pile of objects of the same colour, this colour differs from bird to bird!Doesn't this seem like primative human behaviour, as if its proto-human behavior?

Reality shows and even soap operas seem to be popular because they give us self-confirmation of who we are. If you see some stranger getting hot headed in an argument over a sugar cube in Big Brother, it gives us a confirmation that its not just us that experiences these emotions, and therefore it helps us feel like we belong to the human race. Often depression and other psychiatric disorders come about because of the feeling of being alienated from the rest of society.

If we are all running the same software, and the hardware is built on the fly, its only natural that we would try to seek and display our identities through affiliation to parts of culture that we feel embody our 'spirit'. Sometimes its in the lyrics of a poem or song, our politics, fashion or our hobbies. But its clear that we are searching for one thing:

Who is this strange being called 'me' behind the eyes in the mirror?

I think you should watch the movie "The Prestige". In my opinion, the consciousness would exist in both the individuals and the concept of "real" should be dropped. Its more like asking if the ferrari Enzo on this side is real or if the one on the other side is. Fundementally, we're no different than objects. Consciousness is an appendage to our physical properties. (psst! These are just my opinions)



I think you should read the book named "The Mind's I" by Douglas Hofstadler. Its a compilation of essays on the brain, mind, soul etc. (mind you, these three are very different). The book has some very interesting dialogues, intriguing essays and opinions from various thinkers on topics such as consciousness, mind, brain etc. It'll be a great read.

On a related but slightly different tack, you are not exactly the same person you were the day before when you wake up in the morning.

Good point, I wonder then, what are we?

A cohesive unit of cells and symbiotic relationships with bacterial life on and in us. We're simply the captain of a huge galaxy class ship of life.

But if we are always changing and our cells are constantly dieing and replicating, then are we really alive or the sum result of other living things?

I believe the entity we call 'I' is separate from the sum of its parts, therefore I'd say we are really alive. The analogy I'd use is a business, the identity and performance of the company is down to the employee's, each one replaceable and the company would still appear to function as normal (unless you work in the company and see different).

Maybe being alive is simply the 'outward face' that our body puts on all the cohesive units to make us 'work'.

It would take me alot of explaining in this thread, but lately the ideas of the zero point field and its related theory have been making alot of sense.

research it at your own convenience...so far its answering alot of questions for me and is knitting together some very diverse concepts.

I think you'll never know which you are when you come out from a clone machine, either the 'original' you or the cloned you. But the 'identity' is more than memory or other 'connectivity' of the brain. For instance, if you have seen the movie 'face off' then that'll be my example here: some two people in the movie exchanged their faces somehow, i.e., the face is bounded to the other brain. So, who are they now? They are who their faces were or who their brains were? Neither. Though most of their attributes came along with their brains, but their SOCIAL RELATIONS indeed contributed to their behavior. One with a different face can not behave as if nothing has changed. Thus, our identity could be our own brain(our memory, our thought) plus our social relations.

I think that if it was only your brain and memories would be replicated there would be a lot of discrepancies between your body, the nervous system, and your mind.

I read somewhere that your muscles have some sort of memory through the nervous system, so you would have to get those in the clone as well.