Who Would You Be After Death: The Revival Thought Experiment

[atjta]

OK, let's say you died. For the sake of simplicity let's say the cause of your death was just your life processes suddenly stopping. All your memories, etc., remained in your brain. Now let's say you were revived by some new tech. QuestionL would it be YOU who were now experiencing in the body or some new "experiencer"?

 

[ƒ(x)]

What type of question is this? We are made up of our genetic make-up and experiences...nothing more.

 

[Math Is Hard]

atjta, I think you'll need to make a clear definition of "new experiencer" and why there would be one. Otherwise, we're not going to understand what you mean.

People do undergo clinical death, and they are revived. Barring significant brain damage, they are the same person as before the traumatic event. I don't know of any credible evidence that suggests otherwise.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

People do undergo clinical death, and they are revived. Barring significant brain damage, they are the same person as before the traumatic event. I don't know of any credible evidence that suggests otherwise.

I think this is the same problem as the transporter problem - would a perfect copy of a person still have the same consciousness as the original?

I believe this boils down to the question of consciousness, which is unresolved, so there is no known correct answer. There is no way to know if the experiencer has changed or not; not even for the experiencer. For that matter, how do I know if my consciousness now is the same as it was two hours ago? Perhaps that person is for all practical purposes, dead, and I simply have the memory of it.

 

[mugaliens]

People do undergo clinical death, and they are revived. Barring significant brain damage, they are the same person as before the traumatic event. I don't know of any credible evidence that suggests otherwise.

Bingo. Still me.

 

[leroyjenkens]

If it's your brain, then no matter what happens to it, it's still you. If all the processes in your body stopped for some arbitrary amount of time, and then started up again, the person that awakes would be the same person as before.

 

[Drakkith]

With the same memories and thought processes and whatnot, would you even be able to differentiate between the "new" person and the old?

 

[Math Is Hard]

I think the question has been sufficiently answered. Thanks, all.