Reddit reviews Being No One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity (A Bradford Book)

Being No One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity. A bit hefty read, as it is very detailed and scientific despite being written by a philosopher (of neuroscience). Sinks very deep into the subject, speaking of which she or he who is reading is supposedly going to lose.

I'm in the middle of reading Metzinger's Being No One; one of the things he's big on is identifying which constructs within a transparent self model survive being popped out and consciously examined, and which elements are inextricable (hence transparent) building blocks of the model itself. I suppose any functional theory of mind includes the limitations of what is not mind, or what can be removed and keep the mind intact? It's a great book so far, but very difficult going. It's amazing how much of symbolic/epistemic language is dependent upon an unreconstructed dualistic view of mind. Makes talking about it/thinking about it very, very difficult.

http://www.amazon.com/Being-No-One-Self-Model-Subjectivity/dp/0262633086

>would you feel its feelings and think its thoughts?

Yes, the newly created I would feel my feelings and thoughts.

The old I "dies" and won't feel anything.

The same way the I from 10 years ago "died" and doesn't feel anything I'm currently feeling.

>Or would it be a different person with the same memories, thoughts, etc?

That depends on your definition of "different".

You are not the same person you were 10 years ago. Actually, you are not the same person you were 10 minutes ago. You have the same memories and thoughts, though. You can remember yourself 10 minutes ago, can't you? A distinct copy of you is the very same thing, just that there are now two of "you".


Your consciousness is an inherent expression of your physical existence. If you make an exact physical copy then your consciousness is copied, too. Copying would simply mean that your consciousness exists twice at the same time.

You don't think of your younger self as a different person, do you? Yet you are literally just a copy of that younger self. Your whole body was replaced several times over during the many years of your life. More or less all the cells that currently make up your body didn't even exist 10 years ago.

Making a perfect copy of your body is the exact same thing just that it happens faster and you simply exist two times at the same time rather than many times in succession of each other.

If you're actually interested in this topic, I suggest you to read the book Being No One by one of the famous German cognitive scientists Thomas Metzinger. By now it's become essential reading for people studying this field of psychology/philosophy. Or the more popular and very much condensed version of that book The Ego Tunnel, which is not yet as sciency and philosophically easier to read.

I used to think that a self-aware machine-intelligence was not going to be created by human beings, whether or not such a thing is even possible, but I have started to change my view for a couple of reasons.

One is the understanding that self-awareness, that is, a sense of discrete identity, may not be a necessary component of a high intelligence. An exponentially more intelligent entity than any human might be perfectly possible without that entity being in any way self-aware.

http://www.beinghuman.org/metzinger

https://www.amazon.com/Being-No-One-Self-Model-Subjectivity/dp/0262633086/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0/142-1611769-0902728?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=HWRG615EE5F7GDRP2FMC

The other thing that may be that if machine AI continues to improve its ability to appear to be self-aware and human-like, it will pass Turing tests based on its sophistication and superior speed, even if it never actually becomes self-aware, and in this case, what's the difference?

Of course, it is useful to keep in mind that in attempting to create machine intelligence comparable to human intelligence, the human intelligence ha the advantage of three billion years of ruthless, make-or-break R & D....

In any case, I am fairly certain it's not such a hot idea.

Have you read Being No One by German cognitive scientist Thomas Metzinger?

If not, then you haven't read enough, yet.

Here it is on Amazon.