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I had a realization last night about what I call the Teleporter Problem, and what Wikipedia calls the Teletransportation Paradox. This video explains and will provoke thought. The Wikipedia article is less entertaining and doesn't convey as well the energy behind the concept.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfHbsMa_wao
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletransportation_paradox
The point of the thought experiment is to suss out the question, "What is self?" Alan Watts frequently explores this question in a lower-tech way, as do the Hindus and Buddhists.
I first saw this video before going through several levels of Ego Death. The thought was terrifying. Of course if my present self gets deconstructed, I will die, even if an exact copy is instantly created which shares my memories and even if that copy "feels" a continuance of consciousness. I've gotten over many of my attachments to what I thought "self" was, so this is less terrifying.
And now the reveal: I concluded last night that we all go through the teletransportation paradox every single moment.
Think on this: The You that you were at age 10. Can you experience consciousness through that version of you RIGHT NOW? Or can you look out the eyes of the you of yesterday? What about five minutes ago? What about going back to the moment when you started reading this sentence?
The only thing that creates the illusion that you are the same person in each of these instances, is your memories. But you can't look out those eyes, hear through those ears, and think those thoughts again. Your conscious self from all of those moments *is already dead*.
Is. Already. Dead. Stopped breathing. Stopped perceiving and thinking.
It's just as if you went into the left-side teleporter, it blasted you into smithereens, and an exact copy appeared on the other side with the sensation of continual consciousness.
Just the same.
The you that existed a moment ago is gone. Destroyed. No longer exists. Can never return to.
The ego creates the illusion of continuity. The ego underlies your drive to continue existing. The ego is who freaks out at thought-experiments like this one.
This is just one piece in a larger puzzle I've been fiddling with for many years, but it's an important piece. I still don't know how it fits in to the larger picture, but I'm working on that. For instance, what does this imply about the zoomed-out question, "What is the self, then?" What does this imply about the potentiality of "eternal life"? What does it say about the nature of consciousness?
I don't know. But I have concluded that we're all undergoing the teleporter paradox moment by moment. There is no need to fear. Step inside...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfHbsMa_wao
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletransportation_paradox
The point of the thought experiment is to suss out the question, "What is self?" Alan Watts frequently explores this question in a lower-tech way, as do the Hindus and Buddhists.
I first saw this video before going through several levels of Ego Death. The thought was terrifying. Of course if my present self gets deconstructed, I will die, even if an exact copy is instantly created which shares my memories and even if that copy "feels" a continuance of consciousness. I've gotten over many of my attachments to what I thought "self" was, so this is less terrifying.
And now the reveal: I concluded last night that we all go through the teletransportation paradox every single moment.
Think on this: The You that you were at age 10. Can you experience consciousness through that version of you RIGHT NOW? Or can you look out the eyes of the you of yesterday? What about five minutes ago? What about going back to the moment when you started reading this sentence?
The only thing that creates the illusion that you are the same person in each of these instances, is your memories. But you can't look out those eyes, hear through those ears, and think those thoughts again. Your conscious self from all of those moments *is already dead*.
Is. Already. Dead. Stopped breathing. Stopped perceiving and thinking.
It's just as if you went into the left-side teleporter, it blasted you into smithereens, and an exact copy appeared on the other side with the sensation of continual consciousness.
Just the same.
The you that existed a moment ago is gone. Destroyed. No longer exists. Can never return to.
The ego creates the illusion of continuity. The ego underlies your drive to continue existing. The ego is who freaks out at thought-experiments like this one.
This is just one piece in a larger puzzle I've been fiddling with for many years, but it's an important piece. I still don't know how it fits in to the larger picture, but I'm working on that. For instance, what does this imply about the zoomed-out question, "What is the self, then?" What does this imply about the potentiality of "eternal life"? What does it say about the nature of consciousness?
I don't know. But I have concluded that we're all undergoing the teleporter paradox moment by moment. There is no need to fear. Step inside...
