^
The room was quiet for a moment, and then suddenly there was a buzz of discussion.
"Have you watched too many movies and TV sets?"
"The pseudoscience of memory modification is also brought here?"
"Where did this guy come from?"
"I don't know you, and you have a child with you. What do you think this place is?"
…
The blue-haired old man at the front desk glanced at the assistant sitting at the door. The young blue-haired woman immediately stood up and said solemnly: "Quiet! Quiet!"
She seemed to have a special power, and the young people who had been talking a moment ago suddenly fell silent.
The blue-haired old man coughed, looked at the "young man", and still said slowly: "Your question is a good one. Before I answer your question, I will first tell you about a question I raised in a paper when I was young. A thought experiment that has been there.”
As he spoke, he searched for a while on the screen on one side, pulled out an article, and projected it behind him.
While flipping through the article, he continued:
"As I just said, when memories from external stimuli gradually increase and form, self-awareness will gradually emerge, and then the self will be continuously identified. This is the current mainstream concept in our biology and life sciences, but few people will realize it. , but there is one problem that cannot be circumvented——
Does the self-awareness originally exist, but is only gradually revealed due to the formation of memories from external stimuli, or does it not originally exist, but is caused by the memory of these external stimuli?
This is a ghostly question. Many famous biological life scientists, like me, have been confused and even turned to the head of the Grand Temple for help. "
The blue-haired old man's slow words seemed to have special magic power, echoing back and forth in the large room. More than a hundred young people followed this voice and thought quietly.
"It doesn't seem difficult to prove such a problem. All you need to do is put a person, such as any one of you, back into the mother's womb. Then after birth, he is adopted by another set of parents, and in another external environment, Start another life that is completely different from the one you have now.”
The blue-haired old man paused. He glanced at the "young man" and said, "At this time, as this young man asked, are you still you?"
The seats in the audience suddenly started to discuss again, some said it was not the case. The experience and memory are completely different, how can it be the same person? Some people also say that they are originally the same person but grew up in two different environments. Could it be that they are two different people?
According to this, if they had entered another university instead of St. Mary's University a few years ago, or even stopped attending school at all, the environment and memories of these years would have been different. Can I become another person?
And if the conditions of the two families are similar, then no matter which family the person is in, his physical appearance and even his voice will be the same, and he is basically the same person.
But some opponents immediately said that it was because there was a concept of time. A few years ago, their self-awareness had been repeatedly determined and formed. After that, no matter how they changed the environment or which experience they chose. After all, it is still the already formed self.
Not to be outdone, people with opposite views asked, how long did it take to form? Three years old? Still ten years old? The maturity stages of living things are different, and there are obvious differences between blue-haired people and black-haired people. If there are no quantifiable numbers, it will not be convincing.
The two sides couldn't stop arguing, and the blue-haired woman at the door had to shout again: "Quiet!"
The blue-haired old man seemed to be satisfied that his students could have different arguments. Whether they were right or wrong, having arguments represented the existence of some kind of vitality.
After the room became quiet, he smiled and said:
"What is science? Simply put. It means that the same phenomenon can occur repeatedly under certain conditions, and then summed up to form a law. You can then publish it and others can make observations based on your law. test,
So, if one day, some of you actually see the dead souls in horror movies and TV shows in the innermost compartment of the toilet, then don’t be afraid. On the contrary, you should be very excited, because I want to congratulate you. Your experience will be the most exciting one in this era. Great find! "
The audience burst into laughter. After the blue-haired old man calmed down the heated debate with a joke, he continued slowly and humorously:
"I heard everyone's thoughts just now. Some people think that the same body is one person, while others think that completely different experiences and memories are two people. The reason why everyone has two different differences is actually because this is a failure. thought experiment.
No one can really stuff someone back into his stomach, no matter how high the technology is, he cannot reverse time, and even if he starts a new life again, he cannot compare it with the previous one because the original one has disappeared in time and space. "
"So it is a failed thought experiment. The premise it assumes is wrong and unscientific, and it will inevitably not get the correct results."
"A good thought experiment should not only have the premise correct, but also abandon trivial details and go straight to the essence and core of the problem, instead of being full of speculation and complexity. So, I later designed another thought experiment."
Having said this, the blue-haired old man had regained his seriousness, pointing to a paragraph with a large number of pictures projected behind him and said slowly:
"In this experiment, I designed two existing "rooms". Everything in them is exactly the same, from color to size, without any difference, thus forming exactly the same external environment.
Then, in each "room", put two newly born people with exactly the same physical characteristics, twins, cell replicators...whatever they are, we only assume that these two people are completely identical in biological form, even Not one more cell, not one less cell.
It is foreseeable that technology more advanced than ours can do this.
Next, in these two "rooms", we give these two people exactly the same life, the same environment, the same process, all external information is exactly the same, and even the time arrangement is exactly the same.
So, let me ask now, do these two people with the same body and the same world and experience memories have the same consciousness? "
Without waiting for the people below to comment, the blue-haired old man quickly asked: "If there is, then how can it exist in two independent bodies? If not. Then how to explain that two people who are exactly the same from body to memory experience are different people?"
After the blue-haired old man finished speaking, the audience became very quiet. They no longer argued with each other as before, but seemed to be stuck in some kind of thinking.
After a while. After giving them a certain amount of time to think, the blue-haired old man continued: "Like you, it has troubled me for a long time, because the result is contradictory and inconsistent no matter what. In the end, it prompted me to realize Let’s get to what I mentioned earlier, the problem hidden in our mainstream concepts of biology and life.
Unfortunately, with our technological capabilities, we cannot realize this thought experiment, but I believe that there may be beings in the universe that are a thousand, ten thousand, or even more years advanced than us, and they have the ability to conduct this experiment, or even go further. . Not just for a single experimental subject, but for large-scale experiments to obtain a large amount of experimental data.
Why do you say that? Because I believe that this is one of the ultimate meanings that all life pursues.
For example, it extends a small branch - immortality.
In our ancient history, countless monarchs tried to find such power, but in the end they could only rely on the temple, but the branches it extended could solve this problem.
If self-awareness is born from memories stimulated by the outside world, then we can transfer all memories to a spare life body before death and gain new life. Live forever without dying.
And if self-awareness was born at the moment of life and existed originally, then we may still have to follow the original path and practice the ancient legends. Of course, in a scientific way, after all, now we know the zero-dimensional space of memory mapping, and there may be more secrets there that we need to discover.
So I believe that those beings who can make this thought experiment should have obtained the method of immortality, and they can even switch their consciousness to different living organisms. "
The blue-haired old man paused for a moment. Then he looked at the "young man" who frowned as if he was thinking, and said: "So I can only answer your question like this. If self-consciousness originally existed, then even if your memory is modified, as long as you contact it like the legend If you reach a sufficient level, you must still be yourself, otherwise you may lose yourself. And if self-awareness is born from memories and experiences stimulated by the outside world, then it is very likely that you will become another person.
I can't give you a definite answer, but I can tell you don't worry, no one can change your memory.
According to existing research, a slight change in the brain will have an unpredictable chain reaction, and a normal person will be destroyed into an idiot.
I know the movie and TV story you mentioned. Although it does not conform to our biology, it is right about one thing. To make such memory changes, it really requires the Supreme God to do it. "
…
After leaving the spacious room, it was already very late. When the cold wind blew, the "young man" realized that he had forgotten the business. Fortunately, the surroundings were calm and there was no chaos caused by the appearance of the sex demon.
He didn't know why he asked this question or why he was interested in it. He just vaguely felt that he had to figure this out, otherwise he would rather not remember where his home was!
Junxiu had already woken up. Since they didn't find Xingran, the two of them just had to prepare to return along the original route.
Still waiting to start work tomorrow!
At this time, among the people who followed him and poured out of the large room, someone received a call and said in surprise: "Near St. Pudis? A pervert attacked a car? Okay, I'll leave right away."
The "young man" was suddenly startled, and so was Jianxiu. Although it was not necessarily Master Linran's four-wheeled vehicle that was attacked, but because he had seen a column of soldiers when he came here, he felt that he should go see it anyway. look.
^(To be continued.)
