Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
Is memory required for sentience?
We can't measure what is or what is not conscious physically.
But are people really the same conscious person if they're memory is changed?
If a being has a limited memory, does that make it less sentient?
If you lost the ability to make memories, would you still be you? Or would it be another consciousness in your body, and a new one taking over every time it loses track of it's identity?
Or is consciousness and the self just an illusion?
2 Answers
- WW - BHNLv 79 years agoFavorite Answer
Personal identity is closely linked with memory.
Change or delete memories, and personal identity is changed.
As memories change from moment to moment (in a healthy, normal mind), personal identity changes as well.
The self is an illusion.
The self that you were, is no longer, the self that you will be, is not yet.
Here and Now is Being.
The only reality is the here and now. The past is memories, the future is expectiaions, Only in Being do we experience reality.
Since Being is fleeting to say the least, lasting far less than a moment, Being is Nothingness.
If my memories disappear, I am no longer what I was. The illusion of self has changed.
If my memories do not disappear, I am still not what I was, as the illusion has changed.
The me (self) that exists, never was, and never will be, only, is.
All things are transient.
Source(s): Baba Ram Dass
