timtyler comments on To what degree do we have goals? - Less Wrong

45 Post author: Yvain 15 July 2011 11:11PM

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Comment author: Armok_GoB 16 July 2011 12:24:20PM 9 points [-]

If you're driving a large vehicle it is much heavier than your brain, does this mean identifying with the tiny lump of flesh rather than the tons and tons of steel is a terrible mistake?

Comment author: timtyler comment score below threshold [+] (5 children)

Comment author: Armok_GoB 16 July 2011 08:06:55PM 6 points [-]

I disagree strongly and see no reason why you'd think that.

Comment author: lessdazed 21 July 2011 07:37:07AM 1 point [-]

Have any fillings in your teeth?

Comment author: timtyler 21 July 2011 08:32:59AM 2 points [-]

I don't claim the division is perfect. There's the extended phenotype, and all that jazz. However, the claim was about the "most natural place to draw a line between you and not-you". Of course there is no perfect place to draw that line - so, a few fillings do not disturb the general thesis.

Comment author: lessdazed 21 July 2011 08:57:17AM * -1 points [-]

Assuming one has to draw a line, there will probably be a best place to draw it.

I think the assumption that one has to draw a line is arbitrary, like deciding what amount of market capitalization constitutes making a corporation "too big to fail" and what falls short of that, or deciding "when 'life' begins". Such line-drawing exercises leave me thinking "Um...what?"

Comment author: timtyler 21 July 2011 08:00:49PM 2 points [-]

Uh huh. So: I care about my toenails less than my kidneys too. But the context from the post is whether people identify with anything other than their conscious mind - and the answer I was giving was of the form: yes, of course!!! Consciousness is like the PR department. If you think that is you then - in my book - you have made a basic and fundamental existential mistake.

timtyler comments on To what degree do we have goals? - Less Wrong

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