Good interesting post and I kind of get it (Psychologically) . But how does this knowledge benefit or change my life in any way ? (I don't intend for a negative comment , I studied Buddhism for years and this topic of the self always frustrated "me" )
Yeah, that's a fair question. To the extent I have an answer I'd point to what I wrote in the last paragraph -- feeling a bit less like a self makes it easier for me to be kinder & less selfish.
But I also think it's fair to say I wrote this up just b/c I think it's interesting and couldn't find another article online that covers it as thoroughly as I tried to here. i.e. my goal is to blow your mind, not necessarily to give you a tool to be more effective in life (as is usually the case with my articles about frisbee).
Fun. I enjoy this physical and philosophical debate and have often pondered the free will part of it. Hard to explain but the ship of Theseus part I am ok with. I think the unknowable is a “correct” definition of self. I know I am a kind of self, but I don’t think I can ever fully scientifically define what that is. It being a changing thing is part of the problem. But I still land on their being a self with a quantum mechanics mind of caveat: at all times we are a superposition of many states, some of them very self like and some not. In moments of consciousness, we are usually collapsing the wave function enough to reliably identify ourselves there perceiving the Universe, at modest resolution. this does not invalidate the existence of not self.
"I know I am a kind of self, but I don’t think I can ever fully scientifically define what that is."
Yeah, it's definitely interesting to me how, even with all the ways we are not a "continuous" self over time, that I nonetheless feel such a strong sense of continuity! Thanks for commenting :)
Good interesting post and I kind of get it (Psychologically) . But how does this knowledge benefit or change my life in any way ? (I don't intend for a negative comment , I studied Buddhism for years and this topic of the self always frustrated "me" )
Yeah, that's a fair question. To the extent I have an answer I'd point to what I wrote in the last paragraph -- feeling a bit less like a self makes it easier for me to be kinder & less selfish.
But I also think it's fair to say I wrote this up just b/c I think it's interesting and couldn't find another article online that covers it as thoroughly as I tried to here. i.e. my goal is to blow your mind, not necessarily to give you a tool to be more effective in life (as is usually the case with my articles about frisbee).
Amazing thanks :)
I recommend you check out Frank Yang on YouTube if you want your mind blown further :)
Fun. I enjoy this physical and philosophical debate and have often pondered the free will part of it. Hard to explain but the ship of Theseus part I am ok with. I think the unknowable is a “correct” definition of self. I know I am a kind of self, but I don’t think I can ever fully scientifically define what that is. It being a changing thing is part of the problem. But I still land on their being a self with a quantum mechanics mind of caveat: at all times we are a superposition of many states, some of them very self like and some not. In moments of consciousness, we are usually collapsing the wave function enough to reliably identify ourselves there perceiving the Universe, at modest resolution. this does not invalidate the existence of not self.
"I know I am a kind of self, but I don’t think I can ever fully scientifically define what that is."
Yeah, it's definitely interesting to me how, even with all the ways we are not a "continuous" self over time, that I nonetheless feel such a strong sense of continuity! Thanks for commenting :)