What happens when we die?

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Personally I think somehow our consciousness continues to exist because our body is constantly changing its atomic structure, thus 'we' are not our bodies ... we are rather an informational pattern that inhabits our body.

Reincarnation makes the most sense to me though i kind of doubt there is any karma or whatever involved in the process. Who knows though. But I'm gonna vote reincarnation because it makes the most sense to me.

Huh? If your consciousness arises from an informational pattern that inhabits your body, then wouldn't you expect that your consciousness would stop when that informational pattern is destroyed?

Actually I should clarify. I think consciousness itself is not created by the pattern, but rather amplified and shaped by the pattern. I think when we die, that 'spark' of consciousness simply latches on to some other pattern.

I understand what he is saying it is a good theory don't ya think.

Can't say I have any real evidence, but I think the most likely answer is simple a fade to black. Complete nothing, so complete you can't even experience the nothing because you are nothing.

The issue with your idea of reincarnation is fairly simple though. Changing your atomic structure does not mean you are no longer you. That would mean that every time you ate or used the washroom, you'd be a different person (drawing in and expelling new nutrients). Hell, every time you took a breathe and exchanged oxygen and carbon dioxide you'd be a different person.

No.

Think about it like this. If you hit your head very hard, your subjective experience will change. In other words, by altering the physical structure, you change your subjective experience. This also happens on a smaller scale whenever you make a new memory. When you make a new memory, your physical structure is altered, and as a result you have a new subjective experience of being able to remember a certain thing.

Well, if your physical structure is changed a lot, say by a bullet going through your brain, then your subjective experience would change drastically. If your physical structure is destroyed, then your subjective experience would no longer exist.

True but wouldn't that kinda be like having the power to shapeshift but having no controle of it? That is what I am comparing it to forgive me if the anaology doesn't make sense to you it does to me.

This is why I find materialistic explanations of consciousness problematic though. It's the whole Theseus's Ship/Grandfather's Axe paradox. Our entire bodies, including our neurons/brain, are constantly replacing their physical components, like a river is constantly cycling different water molecules.

Yet, we are the same consciousness our entire lives despite the fact our body at age 70, is no more the same body we had at 20 than the axe with a new handle and a new blade is the same ax it was before its only two parts were replaced. So it's safe to say we are not exactly equivalent to our bodies.

Does the fact our body is being replaced so gradually make it possible for our consciousness to transfer to different material? I mean, why would that be fundamentally any more different than the Star Trek transporter? It makes no sense at all to me that the transporter would really be the same person from a materialistic point of view. Yet our body is no more the same body it was a decade ago than the person who jumped in the transporter, in fact even less so since at least in Star Trek they created them again out of the same atoms.

When I was very young, I used to think reincarnation was the only possible way for things to go. I figured that you'd die, but your brain wouldn't realise you were dead, and therefore your consciousness would kind of... drift off and inhabit something else? I came up with this theory on my own, mind — I had no idea what reincarnation was, and zero concept of religion. Our neighbours once asked me if I was Jewish or Christian, and I said Jewish just because I knew we weren't Christian and that was the only other option I was given.

Took me ages before I stopped believing that. I was so positive it was the only was things could work.

Sure, but it's still the same consciousness. Brain activity creates thoughts and emotions but without consciousness there would be no subjective experience of these; we would merely be zombies/robots.

How are you separating these things out? O.o Isn't it more the other way around?

That is, without consciousness there would not be thoughts and emotions — there's no such thing as them without the subjective experience. That's what they are. Yes?

What I mean is, sure the brain could process emotions and thoughts, but without a subjective consciousness, they wouldn't be 'real' emotions and thoughts, they would just be computer-like calculations.

A good analogy, when a human adds numbers in their heads, they are experiencing adding numbers, because they have consciousness. A computer can do the same, but it never experiences or realises it is adding numbers. Our brain would be similar with that and with emotions if we didn't have a 'soul' so to speak.

If I change the wiring in my house, is my house brand new and completely different? If I fill a wine bottle with rum, is the bottle completely new? Think of it this way, your replacing parts with an exact (or nearly so) copy. You aren't changing anything, just doing repairs. Also, your conscious is NOT the same at 70 as it is at 20. You learn, right? That's a change in your conscious. Every memory is a change. Every experience, is a change.

Those are false analogies. The wiring is just a small part of the house, arguably, it's not even part of the house itself at all. The rum was never actually part of the bottle either, nor was the wine.

Sure, your personality has changed, but your consciousness is the same. You are still the same person.

I don't think so! You are the continuation of your past self, but you are not the same person as your past self. Our physical structures are constantly changing, and equivalently, our personalities and memories are constantly changing.

What do you think would happen if your body was destroyed and reassembled? Would you be a continuation of your old self, or would that person just be a clone of you?