The pseudonym "Philo Vaihinger" has been abandoned. All posts have been and are written by me, Joseph Auclair.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Unity of apperception

"The 'I think' must accompany all my representations."

Years later, it was discovered that transporter beams had been a Starfleet hoax.

The transporter machine in the Enterprise into which he stepped destroyed Captain Kirk instantly, disintegrating his body to atomic dust to be swept up by that evening's housekeepers and flushed out into space.

The machine in the next starship, ostensibly his destination, simply assembled an entirely new Kirk who would step away believing he had just moments ago finished lunch in an Enterprise snack bar.

What if the unity of apperception is just a mistake and there is no single, continuing 'I' - no me - that is the thinker of all "my" thoughts?

Meat and electricity.

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