No comment on my previous post needed…or even requested, actually. You’ve answered the main questions I had with regard to your viewpoint in post #118 (as I suspected our main difference lies in how we each treat “vested interest”). I accept that difference. Sorry, that you found my analogies confusing (for real confusion, try coming up with them :D), but the first one was, what I considered, a simple way to illustrate the difference between a hardwired consciousness and one that is not; the second one was what I considered a simple way to answer your question about how I would regard “replacing 1% of deep CNS atoms with identical atoms every day”. If the analogy failed to deliver, then my short answer is, “replacing 1% per day is probably not a high enough rate to affect my fading away in the least.” But, who knows? It’s all simply conjecture based on how we each measure logic and parsimony. I think it’s helpful to keep in mind, however, that while logic and occams razor are certainly productive tools to use in theorizing about things and events in our universe, once revealed, I think we can agree that the universe often neglects to use, what we consider, the most logical or parsimonious methods. So, there’s a very good chance that we’re both wrong—logically.
…Not a bad spot for me to curtsy out, too (bowing aggravates my lumbago).