this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2024
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What do you mean by "evolve"? I think my past selves is dead because I can't experience the exact same consciousness of the past selves of me again. Doesn't that count as being "dead"?
βIs the caterpillar dead because it became a butterfly?β
The caterpillar IS the butterfly. Perhaps not as you know it, but change is the universal constant, my friend, and trying to hold on to the past is a futile attempt.
In my experience itβs best to acknowledge the past enough so we can appreciate the good things, learn from our mistakes or anything we feel we did less-than-great at, then try to do better as we evolve.
No, youβre not the exact same person you were a few years ago, but we live in a changing world and we change with it as time goes on.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us"
Best of luck, Iβm here if you want to talk about anything :)
I don't think you quite understand what I'm trying to say.
How is this relevant? I'm talking from the first person perspective. Whether the caterpillar is dead or not depends on the person experiencing the consciousness of their own mind. From my perspectives, i think yes, the caterpillar is dead (it's not really important because the caterpillar or butterfly isn't conscious of itself).
If you want to draw the line in that way, then break it all the way down and apply the principle evenly. Every single time you change your mind in any way, shape or form, that is an ever-so-slightly different you. The difference is so minor that it's basically no difference at all, but it does exist.
So, when you decide to put stawberry jam instead of grape on your toast, that old you that used grape is dead. And then the next day, when you go back to picking grape, the stawberry you is now dead and the grape you is resurrected.
Obviously I'm exaggerating with such an innocuous example, but the basic principle applies. It's all arbitrary, from a truly objective perspective.
There's a number of deductions one could draw from this, but a big one is that we try to apply identity as if "things" are real, but it's mostly just our choices, which can vary as much as we want them to. This goes against a natural human desire for stability, we kinda wish that once we learn something, it can "stay learned". But that's just like Mr Incredible complaining that his city won't "stay saved" in the beginning of the movie.
Pluto's recategorization away from planetary status triggered this in a lot of people. It's arbitrary though, we made those decisions in the first place. And in the modern world, we really need to be ready to handle new stuff all the time, so flexibility is important.
Here's where having a conversation about this may be fruitless. You're saying you feel dead, and you're saying the only one who can define that is you. The caterpillar/butterfly comparison is objectively apt, because just like a butterfly cannot exist without having been a caterpillar, you as your current self could not have existed without having first been you in middle school, because you are literally the same organism as that middle schooler. However, you're saying you feel dead, which no one outside of you has any real control of or input over, and if you're stuck on that, it might be something you should discuss with a psychologist
By that rationale, wouldn't other people then also be dead, as you cannot experience their consciousness?
I'm not trying to dehumanize other people but yes. That's how i see it.
It's a very intersting viewpoint, pardon me for exploring further. So future you (or me) is also dead until the brief flash of life where yours and his consciousness finally overlap, before lapsing into nothingness again.
It's very reasonable even, to think everything not experienced this very moment is totally alien to us.
Thanks for stretching my grey matter on this dull day!
How about a different way of putting it?
Ones past self is a book with more blank pages than our current self. The blank pages represent things that are unknown, things that could be, different possibilities. Perhaps I dislike some of the pages of my current self and would rather not have experienced them. My past self would then be a clean version of the book, where the pages I dislike could still turn out to be different.
But then the question remains of whether the pages are blank because the author is still thinking about what to write or whether they just didn't find the time to do it yet. Is it actually a book with blank pages or is it more like a folder where you continuously add pages - and furthermore, are the missing pages actually still blank or are they already printed and only need to be added to the folder? Is an incomplete version of a book still the same book? If you only read the first book of a three book series, is it still the same story? Are the pages actually missing or do they exist and I just haven't read (=experienced) them yet?