Referencing long-term consequences could also be viewed as having empathy with ones future self. Instead of thinking “What do I care about the me of tomorrow?”, one creates the impression/illusion of a continuous personality. Maybe empathy for others even evolved piggybacking on empathy for future versions of oneself.
If you are going to manage long term consequences by having empathy with ones future self, there had better be a self threading through time. So I see this as the explanation for why “the self” exists at all.
This is a good response to Blindsight. I’m less sure about it as a response to OB’s version of cryonics, but I need to play taboo with the subject for a while before I can comment further.
Referencing long-term consequences could also be viewed as having empathy with ones future self. Instead of thinking “What do I care about the me of tomorrow?”, one creates the impression/illusion of a continuous personality. Maybe empathy for others even evolved piggybacking on empathy for future versions of oneself.
If you are going to manage long term consequences by having empathy with ones future self, there had better be a self threading through time. So I see this as the explanation for why “the self” exists at all.
This is a good response to Blindsight. I’m less sure about it as a response to OB’s version of cryonics, but I need to play taboo with the subject for a while before I can comment further.