Who are you? Your name is just a code name for you, and your body is just a carrier for you. Is the memory representing you or is the brain representing you? Why do you think you are you?
Hello everyone, today we are going to talk about a particularly brain-burning topic. Or the old rules of praise, attention, and arrangement on which we start today's topic. When you hear my question, there may be many people who are silently nagging themselves in their hearts. Does this still need to be asked? This kind of question is simply boring, of course I am me.
But after a few minutes of careful calm, you will find that the answer is not as simple as imagined. I don't know if you remember a clip in "The Legend of Wulin". Lu Xiucai said that Ji Wusheng was dead. What was originally a very simple dialogue finally made Ji Wusheng embark on a road of no return, and Lu Xiucai also relied on his eloquence to finally escape the disaster.
When I saw this conversation, I just saw the surface of the TV series and laughed it off, but a few years later. After thinking about it myself, I will find out who I am, I came to this world, whether the world chose me, or I chose the world, in fact, the answer to this question is not simple.
Let's first analyze this problem from reality. One morning you woke up and went to the mirror and looked at your face. I drank too much water last night, this morning. There is some puffiness on the face. Eye bags have also grown quite a bit. And what you call me now is you.
At this point you will think that your body is yourself. The body also represents you. When decades later, you die and your body disappears, it means that you have disappeared from this world. But is that the real answer? Is it really the flesh that represents me, that I am the flesh?
If you continue to listen, it may subvert your cognition.
Hair is your own fingernails, toenails are all your own, so if you go to the barbershop and cut your own hair into a bald head. Then go home and use nail clippers to cut off all the nails on your hands and feet. So let me ask you, if the body represents the you you are now or the you who once was? Cut your hair, cut off your nails, you are essentially destroying the most basic structure of your own body.
Another example is a patient lying in the hospital, and he needs to replace his kidney immediately, only then can he continue to survive. The doctor happened to find a volunteer, and the volunteer's kidney was just right for the patient. After the operation, the patient recovered his body. So is the patient at this time still himself? Some people may wonder whether patients at this time will become volunteers.
But obviously, you still have your memory, and your consciousness is still the same as before. You think of yourself as your former self. Even if you replace all the organs in your body, replace the heart with Zhang San's, change the kidneys with Li Si's, and replace the liver with Wang Wu's. Replace all your blood, your skin, and you're still you.
Including your family, your relatives and friends, they all think you are still the same as before you. So if we analyze it this way, the body does not represent me. Nor do I mean it's this body. At this time, will you wonder if I am my brain, my brain represents me.
Let's make a hypothesis that our current level of medical care can be enough to replace the brain. Put ab two people in the same operating room. And take out the brains of both of them, and then put B's brain in a head and A's brain in B's head.
After an operation, when two people suddenly woke up. They will find that I am still me, but I have entered the body of another person. Another person thinks the same way. At this time, they will think that they are still themselves, but they have just changed their bodies. If so, then it is clear that the brain represents me.
But if we continue to assume, then perhaps the answer is wrong.
Suppose our technology can go so far as to replace human brain data. Put ab two people in the same operating room. Take all of A's brain data out. Then put b's brain data into a's brain, and a's brain data into b's brain. Then when the two of them wake up, they will find that they have the same result as the replacement brains they just had.
They will all think they have entered into another person's body. At this time, the brain does not change. It's just that the memory data in the brain is replaced. So speaking of which, will you suspect that I am my memory, and my memory represents me. But the real answer is not.
Do you remember the topic of quantum transmission of human teleportation that we mentioned in the previous topic? Suppose that the degree of technological development we have now can reach the level of quantum transmission of the human body. We all know that everything in the world is made of particles, including our human body.
Let's say you've now stepped into the world of high-tech living. On Monday morning, you need to go to work. Then it happens to use this technology of quantum transmission, and this technology of quantum transmission is taken care of by specialized quantum transmission service companies. They put you in a quantum transmitter not far from your home.
This machine will instantly read the permutations and combinations of all the particles in your body, and then quickly transfer them to a conveyor near your company in a short period of time.
The conveyor near the company will combine the existing particles into a human body exactly like yours. The new combination of you and the previous you, memory, brain, body organs, all systems are exactly the same. Then smash you in the machine near your house at a very fast speed.
At this time, there is only one newly born you left in this world, but this newly born you will think that you are the previous you, I am still me, but after a long-distance rapid transmission.
Imagine, is this kind of transportation particularly convenient?
But what if there is a bug in the quantum transport company's machine? On Tuesday morning, you still went to work the same way as the previous day. You walk into a quantum transmitter not far from your home. Then in the quantum teleporter near your company, a body exactly like yours is quickly generated. Everything seems so natural and convenient, because in the previous few trips, you have never made a mistake. But this time it just happened to be in trouble.
This conveyor smashing system not far from your home suddenly failed. When it came time to assemble into a new you, the machine near your home didn't smash your original body in time. So there are two you in the world now, and these two you have the same mind and the same body.
Because of the bug in their machine, they remedied it in time with manual labor. Two men in black from the service company walked up to your house? They came and found you. And to tell you, I'm sorry, there was an error in this transmission, which we have never encountered before. But don't worry, we will continue to serve you with a manual replacement machine, and now we are ready to continue to crush your original body.
You'll be amazed when you hear it. Why did you want to crush me? You should smash the replicas!" The two men in black said. You're mistaken, we should have smashed your body to continue to serve you, you look at your surveillance video now, you're already working on your company.
After some negotiations, the two men in black were finally sent away by you. But from an ethical point of view, the world will never allow two you to exist, which is also a problem for your life.
So two men in black went to the company and went to find your copy. But the reply of the replica is that you should continue to serve you, and you should destroy my essence, because I have now reached my company. The company's me is the real me. So with that said, let me ask you a question. Do you still think that memory is me, and I am memory data?
The final answer seems to be out of the blue. I'm not our brain, I'm not our memory, and I'm not any example of our body. When the quantum transmitter is transmitted, the generation of a new you is at most a replica of you, although he has the same memory as your body, the same body. But your body will be shattered after transmission.
This also means that it seems as if this kind of thing has been lost during the entire transmission process. It cannot say what kind of substance it is, what form it exists in, and it seems to be a kind of illusory thing. It seems as if it doesn't belong to our world.
So speaking of which, everyone in front of the mobile phone may feel that the technology of quantum transmission that I am talking about is simply too far away from us, and it is completely utopian. So share with you a real thing that we can now confirm. It's the cellular metabolism of our body.
In the previous topic, we also mentioned that the cells of the human body are constantly generated, and the metabolism of death is constantly being. After about a few months, our bodies were almost replaced. So are you this year still the same as you were last year? Of course, in reality you will think that last year's you and this year's you are the same person.
All of these topics, combined, seem to give a metaphysical color. Scientists think I am a kind of consciousness. Theological researchers will think that I exist as a soul, and that I am the soul. Of course, the soul and consciousness are actually the same, and neither of them can be confirmed by us humans, so I am actually a kind of illusory, illusory existence in the world. We can't touch them, we can't see them, and we can't make full use of them.
These problems are not clearly explained by metaphysics or theology. The more clearly some questions are explained, the more they will put a thick veil of mystery over this kind of thing. Well, that's it for this issue, who do you think I'll be? Welcome to leave a message in the comments section to discuss, we will meet again in the next issue.