Survival of the self through time

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"Survival of the self through time" is a concept based on three other concepts survival, the self, and time. Conscious beings (humans) believe that they exist for more than a conscious moment because they remember events that have happened to them in the past. Their consciousness organized these events often in a chronological order so that it appears that these events were experienced over a period of time. There is a difference between an actual event and the belief that a conscious event occurred. Actual survival into the past is more than just the belief that that you were alive and conscious in the past. If there was created a cidentireplica of your present body at this moment he would produce the behavior that you will produce. He will have the memories that you have. He will believe like you do that he existed in the past and actually experienced what your body experienced, but his body will not have experienced these conscious events even though he has memories of these conscious events. Did he experience these events or not? He believes that he did experience these conscious events. He has the exact same memories of these events as you do as long as he has the same structure and functioning in his body as you do. If his structure and functioning changes from that of yours he may remember conscious events that actually happened to your body that you do not remember.

There is another way to explain this situation rather than saying you are your body, we can define your current self as the structure and functioning of the body not the body itself. Connectivity of the self through time is not made by the body but by the structure and functioning of the body. From either the original or the cidentireplica perspective, no matter how the cidentireplica or original is made, they are both connected to these conscious events because it was the structure and functioning of matter that experienced these conscious events. The structure and functioning of the current original and cidentireplica are connected to the past by the resulting effect of these past events on their current structure and functioning. From the cidentireplica perspective he did experience these conscious events because it was not the body but the structure and functioning of the body that perpetuates the self through time. You gain your conscious survival through time not by a body but from the structure and functioning of bodies that produce a consciousness that you experience. If your current body's structure and functioning changes to that of another person that does not have your ixperiencitness it will no longer produce a consciousness that you experience. Though technically your body exists, you will no longer consciously exist.


Continuousness and continuity through structure and functioning