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DanielLC comments on The Hidden B.I.A.S. - Less Wrong Discussion
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Define "soul".
If they're supernatural entities, I don't believe in them. If they're just whatever makes you a person, I believe in them. I believe they can be created, destroyed, modified, and copied. The Julian who walks into the room is not the one who walks out of any of them, and is equally similar to all the ones who walk out, but that doesn't mean there aren't souls involved.
Before anyone starts talking about what is and isn't supernatural, I'm using it to mean fundamentally mental. You have a soul, but it's made of atoms interacting the way you'd expect them to interact, so it's not supernatural.
By soul in this article, I mean a supernatural extra object, but I am aware that many people here rationally reject that notion. What I was trying to get at was that even though we understand that it is not true, many hidden thought processes take the existence of a (supernatural) soul for granted.
I am curious about the opinions of other people here about what actual physical processes would comprise a non-supernatural soul. If I replaced all of my insides with such advanced electronics that nobody else would notice a difference (without a medical examination), does that mean I have the same soul? If I had to define a soul it would be "whatever it takes internally (mentally and physically) to cause an identical outward behavior as observed in a certain point in time". That satisfies the conditions of your definition, as well, although it is not restricted to "people", but actually comes closer to defining what qualia actually are.
I believe personal identity is an illusion. The other soul would have the same memories as you, and would feel the same from the inside. It would still be a different soul. Exactly the same would be true if you waited a split second.
I agree. It would be easier if only it weren't such a powerful illusion.