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Masimat t1_j8ixdw6 wrote

When does a consciousness permanently lose consciousness of their current brain and body? Could a lobotomy make me lose my current existence and give it away to another consciousness, even if my brain and body survive the lobotomy?

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Zeebuss t1_j8sol7z wrote

The continuity of brain and consciousness is not something I think we have a clear answer on. "Are you the same consciousness before and after a lobotomy" seems to be in the same class as "if you split the corpus collosum is it two consciousnesses now" and "Is Phineas Gage the same person before and after his accident?"

It will depend on whether you conceive of consciousness as arising from and dependant on its material substrate, or if you think consciousness is universal and that brains/minds are sort of like "antennas" that can pick up conscious signals, or any of many other theories of consciousness!

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bradyvscoffeeguy t1_j8va3dj wrote

Awhile ago I wrote an essay about this. I read all the thought experiments about the continuity of personal identity - the brain upload, the clone, the swampman, memory continuity, etc. - and came to the conclusion that the only answer is that there is no continuous "me", only future people who have minds very similar to me. Tomorrow I am a different person. Dramatic events like lobotomies only serve to make future persons more dissimilar to previous ones.

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