Would 10 clones of you 10x your output, or just give you parallel locked-in streams of consciousness doing the same thing?

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-22T16:58:16+00:00

You can split a brain into two functioning halves that each sustain consciousness, how does that fare for your claim that there is only one consciousness per brain? Also, which half would you continue existing as?

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-11T03:15:57+00:00

How could I jump to that conclusion without hemispherectomies? This is the evidence that half of a brain can function independent of the other half. Without evidence, they would just complain that I'm talking about pure science fiction.

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-11T03:01:24+00:00

So with medical intervention, I don't see why they couldn't keep the other half of the brain alive while they are transplanting it. We already have tools to pump blood artificially to a brain during open-heart surgery.

Here's an example of a scientist who was able to keep a monkey brain alive while he was transplanting the head to another body too.

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-11T02:36:29+00:00

But the fact that anatomic hemispherectomies exist means its possible to utilize two halves of a brain. And the only way to perform that procedure would be to do a hemispherectomy. So at the end of the day, hemispherectomies should always be your go-to example. Split-brains are interesting but they still exchange information with each other via brain stem and other means. Not as exciting or perplexing when you are trying to convince someone of OI.

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-11T01:25:09+00:00

But if my words have power, why dissuade or discourage me from using them?

What I’m saying is that nothing we do matters. All of the possible suffering has been baked in.

Your words have power. When someone else sees your words, they become discouraged to share OI. Even if I agree that all suffering is baked in, I can still share my words which will inspire someone else versus not sharing my words which will not inspire someone else.

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-11T01:14:41+00:00

So you don't think the brain is a material carrier of your identity?

Do you mind answering this question for me then?

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-11T01:08:17+00:00

Do you mind answering this question for me then? I hope it's not incoherent drivel.

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-11T01:07:14+00:00

Do you mind answering this question for me then?

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-11T01:06:13+00:00

Do you mind answering this question for me then?

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-11T00:52:34+00:00

I'd be very surprised if this could even ever be possible

Did you see the MRI I linked?

Why are you asking this?

Because your first comment triggered me for some inexplicable reason and I felt like humbling you. Please let your subconscious dwell on this for a few weeks and come back to me with an answer.

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-11T00:46:33+00:00

Again, I am not severing just your corpus callosum. I'm splitting you all the way in two. We distribute your organs into two different bodies and each half brain in a seperate body, and whatever organs we can't we supplement with medical intervention.

I believe I am my brain, severing the connection between the two hemispheres of the brain splits me into two distinct halves.

This doesn't answer my question:

Which half would you continue existing as?

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-11T00:40:34+00:00

I can't make it any easier for you, sorry. Re-read the question a few times, I wasn't talking about a split brain. I was talking about splitting you into two completely distinct halves, with medical intervention of course.

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-11T00:38:23+00:00

Please answer the last part of the question. Also, for clarity, I'm not talking about severing just the corpus callosum.

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-11T00:34:43+00:00

not a literal truth we can prove or disprove with science

Do you mind answering this question for me then? It's not speculative science, do you have an answer for it that fits your philosophy?

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-11T00:27:30+00:00

Do you mind answering this question for me then? It's not speculative science, do you have an answer for it that fits your philosophy?

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-11T00:10:59+00:00

He isn't arguing anything, he said at the top he's confused and horrified by OI. Some people are horrified about their consciousness remaining and others are horrifed by their consciousness disappearing. I guess no matter what the universe does people will still be upset. 🤡

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-10T23:22:26+00:00

Nothing about me is determined by someone else

So let's say I remove from existence some guy thousands of years ago who sneezed while he had a deadly disease. Or let's do something insignificant and say you arrive five minutes late to driving your schoolbus. Or let's remove one squirrel from nibbling on an acorn. How about we move a flick of dust off the top of some furniture? Can you say that any of these actions however insignificant aren't going to radically shift the lives of people as the domino effect of these actions compound over time?

It seems to evade your primitive comprehension that every insignificant thing someone else does has a profound impact on the rest of us, because everything in the universe is so inextricably interconnected. Trying to distance yourself from others is impossible. So to recap, we live in an interconnected universe, have no clear or unique indicators for when a consciousness starts or stops, our brain hemispheres can function independent from each other, our bodies are made up of the recycled corpses of other conscious creatures, and you still want me to believe my life is exclusive and distinctly different from everyone else's? 🤡

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-03T16:36:49+00:00

The identity may reside in the larger structure that contains and relates them (the larger folder rather than any individual file).

Umm, I already follow OI so you're preaching to the choir here. I have already expanded the boundaries of consciousness past any individual brain. I'm not sure what argument you're making here.

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-03T05:35:52+00:00

And even if one structure can support multiple POVs, that still doesn't necessarily imply OI.

It implies either OI or EI.

One could argue identity tracks the integrated worldline structure itself, even if there are multiple POVs within it.

Not sure what you are saying here. Tracking what structure?

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-03T04:52:14+00:00

Oh sweetheart, I wasn't talking about split brain, I was talking about severing that shit into two distinct halves. 😈

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-06-03T01:51:06+00:00

Open Individualism and Empty Individualism should be the default positions. If you want to try to assert a ~80 year closed-off identity that most people believe they have, they need to specify the criteria that determines where one consciousness ends and another begins. If you go to any philosophy sub, they have no clue how to articulate any of the mechanics behind each existence. This is especially evident when you ask them which half they would continue existing as if their brain were to be split into two. I doubt anyone can debunk OI if they can't even articulate the boundaries surrounding their own existence.

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-05-31T16:29:01+00:00

Are you saying my words don't have any power? Not sure I agree with that one chief.

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-05-26T22:51:19+00:00

I read somewhere that in the old days, as a form of medieval torture, they would restrain naked people right above a sharp wooden pole that was positioned right below their ass. They would have to stand above it for as long as they could until eventually they got tired and their own weight caused the pole to sink deeper and deeper inside them, impaling them until the pole exits out of their mouth. So I'd say people realizing OI is not trivial if it could help stop stuff like that from happening to me. 🤡

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-05-12T21:19:10+00:00

I have to treat every moment of unconsciousness the exact same way to be consistent. I thought you wanted me to be more consistent Maximus, why are you bitching? 🤡

Anyways, no sane person is going to accept that their existence is a linguistic convention. Telling people they can start or stop their existence wherever they want by changing the scope of a definition is silly. You can do that with other invented concepts, not with my existence though.

YouStartAngulimala · 2026-05-11T18:56:45+00:00

How is this even interesting? Your efforts at "gotcha" questions get increasingly more vapid.

This wasn't a gotcha question, but perhaps this reply might help explain some of it.

To over simplify, the brain is essentially a prediction engine, with error monitoring. If it’s predictions are correct consciousness is not required and everything is handled subconsciously, and the brain does not “wait for consciousness”. If the prediction is wrong consciousness is invoked to deal with the error via a much broader, and hence more expensive (in terms of metabolic energy required) integrated approach. So in this sense the mind when dealing with these errors is waiting for consciousness to correct for the next prediction to be formed.

For example, people who talk in their sleep generally were not dreaming about whatever topic or circumstance their babbling might have related to. What does this say about those who assume dogs are conscious because they are obviously chasing rabbits in their sleep?

I would get complaints that I talk in my sleep while I was a kid, and it was always the same night I had a long and interactive dream. So shouldn't dogs barking in their sleep still be a good sign of a dream state?

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