I don’t see why the TM issue is essential to your confusion. If you are not a dualist then the fact that two human brains differ only in the precise arrangement of the same types of atoms present in very similar numbers and proportions raises the same questions.
I am not a dualist. I used the TM to avoid issues of quantum mechanics. TM equivalent is not compatible with a dualist view either.
Only a part of what the brain does is conscious. The visual cortex isn’t conscious. The processing of signals from the retina is not under conscious control. That is why optical illusions work, the signal processing happens a certain way, and that certain way cannot be changed even when consciously it is known that what is seen is counterfactual.
There are many aspects of brain information processing that are like this. Sound processing is like this; where sounds are decoded and pattern matched to communication symbols.
Since we know that the entity instantiating itself in our brain is not identical with the entity that was there a day ago, a week ago, a year ago, and will not be identical to the entity that will be there next year, why do we perceive there to be continuity of consciousness?
Is that an illusion of continuity the same as the way the visual cortex fills in the blind spot on the retina? Is that an illusion of continuity the same as pareidolia?
I suspect that the question of consciousness isn’t so much why we experience consciousness, but why we experience a continuity of consciousness when we know there is no continuity.
I don’t see why the TM issue is essential to your confusion. If you are not a dualist then the fact that two human brains differ only in the precise arrangement of the same types of atoms present in very similar numbers and proportions raises the same questions.
I am not a dualist. I used the TM to avoid issues of quantum mechanics. TM equivalent is not compatible with a dualist view either.
Only a part of what the brain does is conscious. The visual cortex isn’t conscious. The processing of signals from the retina is not under conscious control. That is why optical illusions work, the signal processing happens a certain way, and that certain way cannot be changed even when consciously it is known that what is seen is counterfactual.
There are many aspects of brain information processing that are like this. Sound processing is like this; where sounds are decoded and pattern matched to communication symbols.
Since we know that the entity instantiating itself in our brain is not identical with the entity that was there a day ago, a week ago, a year ago, and will not be identical to the entity that will be there next year, why do we perceive there to be continuity of consciousness?
Is that an illusion of continuity the same as the way the visual cortex fills in the blind spot on the retina? Is that an illusion of continuity the same as pareidolia?
I suspect that the question of consciousness isn’t so much why we experience consciousness, but why we experience a continuity of consciousness when we know there is no continuity.