Who am I

[SpenceMakesSense]

So I'm thinking. If I had part of my memory erased. Would I still be me? Would I just have the same fate as death or actually live on as the same person. Live If i had my memory erased of ubuntu in general. Would I no longer be the same person and my person would be controled by someone or something else while keeping the same personallity?

...and metallica is the best band in the world

[Bliepo32]

You might lose your personality, depending on how you lost your memory. Damage in certain areas of the brain can cause you to lose your personality. How it will change is anyone's guess.

[Barrucadu]

You're Jean Valjean! Sorry, couldn't resist...

That's an interesting question. I've frequently said I wouldn't like to completely lose my arachnophobia, as that would make me less me, if you understand what I mean. I suppose it depends on what memories are lost, I, for example, can barely remember anything about my childhood, but don't think it's affected me in any way.

[Chris_Foster]

I think it would change who I am if I lost my memory. I believe that who you are is made up of a combination of: what your surroundings are (if you live in the mountains your whole life, your generally not going to want to be a computer technician), what personality you were born with, and what your past experiences are. If you take away some of your past experience, you take away some of who you are.

For instance: If your mother was killed by a bear and you get it wiped out of your mind, your not going to think the same of bears as you would if you remembered seeing your mother get mauled by one.

Also, the thought of loosing information I already knew about myself makes me uncomfortable. I definitely wouldn't want my mind wiped in any way.

This is something I've already put quiet a bit of thought into. :)

[SpenceMakesSense]

I think it would change who I am if I lost my memory. I believe that who you are is made up of a combination of: what your surroundings are (if you live in the mountains your whole life, your generally not going to want to be a computer technician), what personality you were born with, and what your past experiences are. If you take away some of your past experience, you take away some of who you are.

For instance: If your mother was killed by a bear and you get it wiped out of your mind, your not going to think the same of bears as you would if you remembered seeing your mother get mauled by one.

Also, the thought of loosing information I already knew about myself makes me uncomfortable. I definitely wouldn't want my mind wiped in any way.

This is something I've already put quiet a bit of thought into. :)

Same here. Ive always been scared of something like this. Becuase I cant imagine just not knowing some of the things I know and still be me. I would think who I was would go and who I had become after something being wiped would be somehwat like me but not completely. Maybe this part of me can be considered a soul. After losing part of what I know I lose my soul and it gets replaced

[Tomosaur]

A far more interesting question:

Since the most realistic method of teleportation (indeed, the only one we can actually do, regardless of on how small a scale) is that of replicating the state of the object in a different place, then if we teleport a person in this manner, is it the same person, or just a completely new person with exactly the same memories, personality etc as the 'original'?

That is - if you were teleported in the manner described above, would you cease to exist while a 'clone' of you is created at the other end - or would an exact replication of you at the quantum level transfer your consciousness to the clone?

[Polygon]

i always thought that with teleportation, like in star trek, it made a copy of you at the quantam level and then on the other end it recreated you, so therefore you ceased to exist and a clone was made of you. So essentially, you die every time you go through it.

[Tomosaur]

i always thought that with teleportation, like in star trek, it made a copy of you at the quantam level and then on the other end it recreated you, so therefore you ceased to exist and a clone was made of you. So essentially, you die every time you go through it.

I'm inclined to agree with you - but the truth of that matter is that quantum mechanics / physics is all so weird that maybe recreating the state of something at the quantum level is the same as simply moving that particle / object to its new position. Kind of like Schroedinger's cat or the slit experiment - the mere act of observing decides the state.

[swoll1980]

I beleive people are a product of there environment, so no you would be a whole new person with new thoughts, memories, and personality