Difference between revisions of "Reconstruction argument"

Latest revision as of 06:34, 20 May 2018

Reconstruction argument asks the question what happens when the nervous system is reconstructed to where it was before death in a reconstructed body? What happens if it is reconstructed to any previous point in the life of the person before death? What if the reconstruction is slightly different from the way it was at any of the point in the persons life? If the person did not die there would have been many structures and functionings that would have corresponded to this future self. And since there could have been many different structures and functioning of his body that this person could have experienced if he had not have died there are many more possible situations that would have brought this person back to experiencing being alive again.

Cliff Walker "Positive Atheism" Magazine" http://www.positiveatheism.org/mail/eml9012.htm writes:

All we know it this: The conscious, aware "Self" is established by the structures and processes of the nervous system. If the structures (cells and other tissues) become destroyed and those processes cease, there is nothing left to establish the conscious, aware "Self," and we become once more like we were before we were born -- non-existent.

If the destruction of the structures and processes of the nervous system makes you non existent then reconstruction should make you existent again. This is because the construction of those structures and processes of the nervous system is what made the person in the first place. Because any construction can actually be a reconstruction before birth you might not have been non existent. and upon death there may be a version of you existing somewhere else at the same or different point in their life upon your death you may not be non existent at all but actually experiencing one of the many different versions of your conscious self.

Reconstruction can be accomplished in two different ways one is by natural random processes of nature. The second way is by the deliberate act of reconstruction by conscious beings.

Cliff Walker continues with:

And if I can be reconstructed anew once, I can conceivably be reconstructed anew twice -- or a hundred times, for that matter! In fact, if I can be reconstructed later, I can conceivably be reconstructed today, while I am still alive! Can you imagine being two different conscious entities at the same time? No. My conscious awareness grew as I grew up, just like my muscles and skeleton. It was dim and weak at first, and now is completely matured and fully functional. It took years for my "Self" to get to where it is today -- it wasn't just "there" and it wasn't just implanted. It took years.

One minute Cliff is saying that we are "structures and processes of the nervous system" then he is saying that he is something more almost supernatural that can never be reconstructed. The structure and functioning of your body has changed over time as it has changed so has the consciousness that you experienced. Why can and are so many things in the world duplicated but consciousness cannot be? Producing a specific human like consciousness is a very complex process but approximating the process is much easier.

Can you imagine being two or more different conscious entities at the same time? I can imagine traveling back in time and seeing a past conscious version of me with that particular structure and functioning of the body and the same into the future. See: time travel arguments. I can also imagine what it would be like to have the exact same structure and functioning of a nervous system that I have now -- it would produce exactly what I am experiencing now.

Reconstruction of the exact structure and functioning is not required to produce a consciousness producing body that produces a consciousness that you or any other person would experience.

1. If reconstruction does not produce the original consciousness then what is being proposed is that there is some supernatural property that cannot be reconstructed making the position a supernatural theory. See: x factor argument. Supernaturalism ( such as the existence of a soul has been rejected to deny life after death, but then it has to be reestablished so that materialism cannot support life after death either. Actual materialism is the only way to understand how life after death is actually possible and then show how to produce it.

2. Reconstruction is just technologically impossible because it is to complex. Reconstruction does not have to be exact, it is done naturally and randomly by sexual reproduction growth and the random experiences of life. As we learn more the impossible becomes possible just because it cannot be done now does not mean that it will never be done. The shotgun process is if you make enough people randomly you will eventually produce a copy close enough to the desired one. There actually will be many consciousnesses that you are trying to reconstruct not just one so the shotgun process may not make a specific consciousness but the more that are desired the more likely that one will be produced. Nature itself does this. The universe is big and long lasting with a lot of matter and energy that is not producing any consciousnesses or ixperiencitnesses but could be used for this purpose. There are possibly many universes that can be used in this way in our multiverse.

3. Fear of multiplicity. Reconstruction is just not an option because multiplicity of self though out space and time is just not acceptable because we are taught that we are unique and non reproducible. In fact, we are much more than a singular body producing a singular moment of consciousness. Based on physical materialism we are much more. What we are extends over space, time, matter and many variations to our consciousnesses.

4. If you do not get the structure and functioning close to that of a specific person you are trying to reconstruct you have still reconstructed some one else, since you can do the process once, you could do it again -- multiplicity. It might be random multiplicity but multiplicity for someone nonetheless.

5. It is a disservice to science and non religious beliefs to propose that there is no life after death and immortality when you accept scientific materialism rather supernatural beliefs, especially when the only real path to life after death and immortality is through science. If science had the support that religions have imagine what we could accomplish.

6. Many conscious beings (people) worry about death but what is more worrying if awaretheory is true is life and all the pain and suffering that you can experience. But when we understand this idea we can concentrate on making life better for everyone because you may never know when another person is a version of you. Which means that when they suffer the part of total you suffers.

Restoration experiments, Restoration arguments, Reconstruction experiments, Reconstruction arguments, Repetition experiments, Repetition arguments, Replication experiments, Replication arguments, Replication experiments and their analogies, Repetition arguments for superimmortality