We are the same the way a river is always the same, or a flame. Always the same but constantly changing. But we can only be the same (albeit evolving) as long as there is only one of us. In the examples of the time travelers, or the transporter twins, or the downloaded personae, the instant a copy is created a divergence begins. There are now two.
Snuff out a flame, relight the candle. It's not the same flame. Snuff out a life, and re-start it somehow, and the two are different. The inheritor remembers the former, thinks himself the former, but the former is gone and he cannot contemplate the successor. By snuff out I mean total death and disorganization, not a momentary interruption of bodily function as often occurs on the operating table.
The consciousness is real, but it is not immortal. It is precisely because it is temporary that it is so precious and irreplaceable, especially if it happens to be yours. Reincarnation, the afterlife, immortality, are simply our fear and our denial refusing to accept that.
Off Topic » in reply to Not true.
I cannot accept that.
The whole thread (59 posts)
- In my next life.....
- Only one? (n/t)
- Parallel Lives--a digression.
- Not true.
- I cannot accept that.
- "Snuff out a flame, relight the candle."
- I wasn't arguing immortality.
- I am of the completely opposed opinion.
- My point is
- re: I am of the completely opposed opinion.
- I am of the completely opposed opinion.
- Basic physics.
- I cannot accept that.
- re: Parallel Lives--a digression.
- Almost anything beats oblivion
- The Awesome Need for Death.
- Not true.
- re: Way to predictable for me