I’m putting this here because I’m not sure it’s really seriously debatable enough for GD, just because it’s not subject to any sort of real-world experiment, only thought experiment.
For the purposes of this discussion, it is assumed that human consciousness is an emergent product of the human brain - the sense of self-awareness is just a thing that a working brain can do as a result of its biochemical functions and does not require any supernatural entities or forces - although the thought experiment itself will involve hypothetical technologies that may be indistinguishable form magic to us.
So I’m sitting here, thinking, being, aware and I am abducted by aliens with unthinkably advanced technology. They study me for a moment then decide it would be kind of cool to turn me into a piece of wall art. They have the ability to transmit matter from one place to another with high fidelity (but this is not the transporter question of self).
The first thing they do is to detach my feet from the end of my legs and mount them at some distance from where the rest of me is on display. They are very careful to set up matter transfer interfaces from each pair of severed ends of blood vessels so from my body’s perspective, blood is still flowing down the arteries in my legs, all the way to my feet and returning via my veins from my feet to my legs, ultimately back to my heart and lungs for recirculation. There is an air gap between the ends of my legs and my feet, but the blood vessels are all functionally continuous and uninterrupted by virtue of the matter transfer widgetry. My feet remain in good physical health.
They also bridge the nerve endings with similarly magical gadgets - so when they tickle my toes, the sensation is transmitted across the air gap without any loss of fidelity and I feel it. My feet feel like they are still attached.
They also bridge the mechanical parts with special force field thingumabobs attached to all relevant tendons and joints and other moving parts - so when I try to move my foot, my foot moves as if it were still attached.
They solve every part of the detachment issue in similar effortless fashion with their technology, to the point that, unless I look, I can’t tell my feet are off, and neither can my feet tell that I am somewhere else.
But this is just the first step and they continue upwards, dividing, separating and yet keeping effectively connected every part of my body - it all feels like it’s still in one piece, even though to any outside observer I am flayed open and apart like the specimen they regard me as.
Only my head remains and for this; the outer parts like ears and eyes and such, they treat as before - they remain fully functional at some short distance of separation…
But for my brain, they separate every cell from every other cell, maintaining at every moment perfect fidelity of logical interconnectedness - every little exchange of matter - fluids, electrolytes, hormones, etc - is maintained in working order, bridged across the gaps between the cells by unthinkably complex technology that works flawlessly. Every little puff of ions and neurotransmitters at every synapse is faithfully and perfectly still transacted as if the neurons were still huddled together in their original monolithic wet mass. No function is impaired because there is no chemical, mechanical, electrical or other physical phenomenon that these aliens are unable to manipulate in perfect and complete detail.
So I keep thinking, right? I continue to be me. Things feel a bit weird because my eyes are mounted too far apart now and they are not in the same spatial relationship to my ears as once they were, and when I talk, my vocal equipment is in the next room, so that’s really weird, but I’m still conscious. My brain is a mist of individual cells that can be arbitrarily divided (in fact they arrange it into a tunnel shape so they can walk through it, but the logic of interconnection and interrelation of all of the original parts, as they were before my abduction, is maintained)
But because consciousness is a function of the brain, and logically, nothing has actually happened to my brain (from the perspective of all of its parts), I am still conscious and aware and still me, right?
Or not, if not, why not?