Consciousness, brains and the replica problem
arXiv Preprint Archive December 7, 2007 via arXiv
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractConsciousness is thought to emerge from brain activity, but the mapping between neural hardware and conscious experience is not one-to-one; multiple conscious patterns can arise from the same hardware. A thought experiment shows that any temporary shutdown of brain activity irreversibly ends the original conscious experience. Without a guaranteed continuous stream of consciousness, the previous self vanishes and a new self replaces it.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Consciousness Nonlinear-dynamics nlin.ao Neuroscience q-bio.nc Personal-identity Cognitive-science |
| Key finding | Argues that a transient shutdown of brain activity leads to the irreversible death of the conscious self, which is replaced by a new one. |
Abstract
Although the conscious state is considered an emergent property of the underlying brain activity and thus somehow resides on brain hardware, there is a non-univocal mapping between both. Given a neural hardware, multiple conscious patterns are consistent with it. Here we show, by means of a simple {\em gedankenexperiment} that this has an important logic consequence: any scenario involving the transient shutdown of brain activity leads to the irreversible death of the conscious experience. In a fundamental way, unless the continuous stream of consciousness is guaranteed, the previous self vanishes and is replaced by a new one.