Why am I not you?

Apparently, I am not the first one to ask this questions, but I think I have some interesting thought experiments that may shed light on this.

Consider that someone drugs you so that you become unconscious, makes a clone of you, and places the two of you in a symmetric room. Would you know that you were the original and not the clone?

Let us first take a classical physicalist approach. In this conception, every conscious reality must be reflected in a neural structure. Note that since you are exact physical clones, all of your neurons are clones, hence all of your memories must be exactly the same. Therefore, you must admit that you could just as easily be the clone as the original "you". Have you lost consciousness with your loss of confidence in your reality? In a sense you have, because consciousness is an awareness of how one relates to the rest of reality. You are faced with the apparent reality of cloning, so the very existence of this technology means that it may in fact be the case that both of you were cloned and the original is elsewhere! In fact, you may be a couple of clones among millions! To insist that you are the original would not only be illogical, but only result in the clone insisting the same because indentical physical systems must evolve identically.

Now let us approach the problem more quantum mechanically. If you create a clone of me, it would also be theoretically possible that we were placed in a superposition of states. Our very interactions would then make us consider ourselves as parts of the same physical system.

Clearly, consciousness involves physical interactions and correlations. For you to be conscious of something there must be a physical interaction between your sensory neurons and me (usually mediated by photons, but also be acoustic waves, touch, etc.) If we were to interact frequently, the distinction between you and me, would become less relevant, like the distinction between our many facets of ourselves (intellectual, volitional, etc). So this is the solution to part of the mystery. "I" is a myth of a unified self from many interacting neural structures. Conflict per se does not exist for neurons, rather thought results from inhibition and reinforcement. Education consists of external inhibition and reinforcement (carrot and stick) as well as providing the means for self-driven inhibition and reinforcement in a sensorial challenging, but safe environment. This is how sensory inputs are translated into actions. If "I" is fundamentally a myth, then "you" is also a myth. Both I and you, however, are heuristic categories whose utility comes from the fact that the neural and other components of the physical "you" are frequently interacting, and the same for me.

Every individual becomes dependent on his components and frequently depression resultS from losing a component of self, if one is aware that such a loss occurred.

Do not believe in something simply because you have heard it or because it has been handed down for many generations, or because it is found written in your religious books, or merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Only believe after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason, and is conducive to the good and benefit of all, accept it, and live up to it.

- Buddha

Our reason is our best guide to what is true. Authorities usually repeat what they were taught and frequently do not even believe what they profess. I would modify the statement:

Do not believe something simply because you heard it, or because it is written, or because it was handed down for many generations, or because of the authority of its proponent. Believe something only when, after observation, and critical analysis, you find that it agrees with your reason and your cosmology, and make all beliefs tentative, pending further evidence and thought.

-SCM

The Golden Rule Across the World's Religions

Native Spirituality

We are as much alive as we keep the earth alive.

-- Chief Dan George

Baha'i Faith

Lay not on any soul a load that you would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for anyone the things you would not desire for yourself.

-- Baha'u'llah, Gleanings

Buddhism

Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.

-- The Buddha, Udana-Varga 5.1

Christianity

In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

-- Jesus, Matthew 7:12

Confucianism

One word which sums up the basis of all good conduct....loving-kindness. Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself.

-- Confucius, Analects 15.23

Treat your inferiors as you would want your superiors to treat you.

-- Confucius

Hinduism

This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you.

-- Mahabharata 5:1517

Islam

Not one of you truly believes until you wish for others what you wish for yourself.

-- The Prophet Muhammad, 13th of the 40 Hadiths of Nawawi

Jainism

One should treat all creatures in the world as one would like to be treated.

-- Mahavira, Sutrakritanga

Judaism

What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it.

-- Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a

Sikhism

I am a stranger to no one; and no one is a stranger to me. Indeed, I am a friend to all.

-- Guru Granth Sahib, pg. 1299

Taoism

Regard your neighbour's gain as your own gain and your neighbour's loss as your own loss.

-- Lao Tzu, T'ai Shang Kan Ying P'ien, 213-218

Unitarianism

We affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence.

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Relativity of Motion

The Gallilean train moving at constant velocity is used as an example of the inability to detect contast motion; however, one can go much further than this and say that we can only detect relative motion. Only relative motion has any reality. Imagine that every particle on the train is acted upon equally by some external force at all times as opposed to the wheels being acted upon by a force, which is then trasmitted to the body of the train and subsequently to the passengers. One can see that even external forces of this type are utterly undetectable. No force would be felt! An accelerometer can detect accelerations only when the motion of the reference mass differ from those of the constraining walls. An accelerometer cannot detect gravity (neglecting tidal effects)! Everything will be in free fall unless acted upon by an external force.

Similarly, no matter what the motion or derivative of that motion, it is utterly undetectable as long as all the particles experience it equally. When an accelerometer on the Earth's surface measures a = g, what we actually detecting is an acceleration upward which is transmitted from the electrostatic forces acting on the body of the accelerometer and, in turn, being transmitted to the reference mass.

Notice that the direction of the acceleration on objects on the Earth's surface is upward, not downward!

Any accelerometer will accurately reproduce the fact that we are accelerating upward on the surface of the Earth. If one tries to tare out this natural value so as to agree with individuals' preconception that we are not accelerating on the surface of the Earth, then flipping the accelerometer over will result in a different value (a = 2 g). This is obviously nonsense because the correct value must be independent of orientation of the accerlometer. Only one value will yield orientation independence and that is a = g (directed upward). This gives us a special reference frame, called the inertial or freely-falling frame in which the accelerometer reading is zero.
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Mass pulls on space and space on mass. All masses only react to the local curvature of space (the energy field). This explains action as a distance forces such as gravity. Similarly, charge acts on the electric field that permeates all of space and distorts it and other charges interact only locally with that field.

Man is a Domesticated Animal

Domestication is the act of humankind changing living organisms into more desirable forms through selective breeding and destroying of undesirable forms. Everytime anyone is killed or punished by society, the result is a more domesticated human species (more moral, more civil, etc).

The next biggest type of genetic selection effecting humans is sexual. Can one find a partner who is willing to have and raise your offspring? This type of genetic selection results in more beautiful (defined culturally and genetically) and social people. Sexual selection results in runaway features: deep colorations, complex song, exaggerated features that are otherwise non-functional, mating habits, etc. Example: In parts of Italy, aquiline noses were a sign of nobility. In those parts, the population has very aquiline noses. The birds of paradise are another good example of sexual selection.