No, it can be best described as information. A pattern in the brain. Destroy the brain and the pattern goes with it, just like burning a Polaroid destroys the picture on it.
And there’s no such thing as “life force”.
Yes, I want to know, and yes, I want there to be an afterlife.
Both my parents died young, and I would like to see them again, and I can’t imagine never seeing my daughter again after I die.
Afterlife? I hope not; I’m tired of this one and don’t want no more.
I already know there is an afterlife, but sure – more confirmation would be nice.
I want the answer to be yes because I miss my mom terribly and want to see her again.
I often wonder if DEATH is the illusion. At least from the point of view of the observer.
See, it’s comments like that that make me wonder if you experience consciousness in the same way that I do. I completely understand how a carbon-based robot that would appear to outside observers to be identical to me could come about through natural forces. But I can’t at all understand where my experience is coming from - and that many people can’t even understand what I mean by this makes me wonder how universal said experience is.
Good questions, Tibby or Not Tibby and many good answers here. I pretty much go along with GuanoLad. If there is, cool. If not, I won’t know the difference. Still, I am curious. Not so sure I care what the answer is-- I’d probably live my life the same anyway.
My theory is that everybody will be surprised.
The Polaroid does not have life. It cannot think, reason, dream, love, or learn.
Neither can the battery.
The patterns you speak of in the brain are circuitry, like a computer. But the computer will not function until you plug it in. Without the energy flowing through it, the computer is just a crappy doorstop.
But even when you do plug the computer into the wall, it has limited function of thinking and reasoning–does that make it alive? It still cannot dream or love.
Everything that we can observe in these human bodies is either matter, energy, or a combination of the two. Our physical bodies are composed of matter. The patterns in the brain are also matter. What makes our bodies different than the computer is the ability to experience life.
You don’t recognize this difference as being a “life force.” That’s fine. Whatever works for you.
I like what one poster said upthread: EVERYONE will be surprised!
~VOW
See, this is where I lean a bit away from the stodginess of pure reductive physicalism, while being careful to avoid the kooky vicinity of dualism and mention of things like 'life-force". I think consciousness can obey all the physical rules of the universe, yet still entertain the possibility of continuation after brain death. Since physicists have been unraveling more and more of the quantum world, I think it’s safe to conclude that reality can indeed be kooky.
Imagine an exact replica yourself appearing before your eyes. And, as a control, let’s make every sensory input into each of you exactly the same from the moment of replication (e.g. visual input: looking at each other against a white background, etc.). According to reductive physicalism, there should be no difference between the two of you. But, there is, although it’s not measurable. To all outside observers there is no difference between the two of you; you know that you are you; your replica knows that he is you—and you’re all correct. However, you know that the person in front of your eyes is not you, and your replica knows that the person in front of his eyes is not him. So, there is a difference. But there shouldn’t be.
I think this apparent paradox can be resolved by treating self awareness separately from the other processes of the mind, including perception and memory. I like the theory that views self awareness as a higher order mental process that has emerged from lower order processes. If this is true, then it’s possible that the real you (the self-aware you) is not only different from an accrued conglomeration of memories, but that this higher order awareness may even reside in a different realm as the lower order processes (not a realm of woo-woo, but a perfectly legitimate place, like quantum energy).
It’s pretty evident that your memories are destroyed at brain death and that the “you” that your loved ones knew and cared about is irretrievably gone when they plant you in the ground. And, if it’s true, as physicalists appear to maintain, that you are nothing but your memories (or at least that “you” and your memories can not be separated), then it follows that consciousness is destroyed at brain death. But, if you can exist, in some form, without your memories, then all bets are off—perhaps your higher order awareness, in some immeasurable energy format, simply disengages from your materially- bound memories, then sallies forth to interact with something else. Is this possible? I don’t see why not. Is it probable? Eh, who knows? I can think of scenarios whereby this could be favored by Occam’s razor, it’s all how you look at it.
If I’m right, and I probably am :D, this would account for you having no memories of an existence before birth. Of course it also means you won’t be rejoined after death by your Aunt Millie and Uncle Fred (but, really, is that such a big loss? ;)). And besides, the thought of remembering yourself as a human being in a non-material realm would be nothing short of hellish. No thanks.
Taking it further, if indeed your higher order awareness may exist independent of your memories, is this something you can conceive of? Is this something you, in your current state, would be invested in? Is this something you’d want?
(…just treat this as a thought experiment if it seems too far out there to take seriously…)