Without brains, or similar meta cognitive systems, consciousness may not exist in the universe except as a possibility. A posssibility space created by physical laws governing matter and energy which allow patterns of interacting components to take place. The form of the self could be manifested in a particular body and brain. In other words we may be clones of possibilities that exist as a result of how the universe, matter, and energy are.





If there is an finite amount of matter and energy in the universe, there may be a finite amount of interactions between matter and energy that can result in all types of patterns. If all possible patterns and higher level patterns (which use other patterns as components) are part of a finite set and all possible selves result from some combination of these patterns then there may be a finite amount of possible selves, souls, etc...., that can happen because of the way the universe, matter, or energy are.





The universe contains all of the possible organizations of matter and networks of interacting components and higher level self reinforcing patterns that can emerge from them. This set of possibilities could be similar to universals or essences. Whenever one of these possibilities takes place, by influencing matter and energy, a universal or form becomes a "particular" or a thing (which must move through time to maintain it's spacio-temporal pattern).





Once the universe reached a certain state all of these possible arrangements of matter, energy, and their emergent patterns, could from that point on become active wherever the conditions of matter and energy allowed. It is in this sense that this set of possibilities determines the range of forms that can be manifested before they even exist.





So if all possible selves and all their possible life courses are part of a finite or numerable set then every self and all possible life courses are in a sense pre-determined. All selves on this planet are a small sub-set of the possible selves who were chosen for existence by the activities of matter and energy in this region of space.





If it's possible for matter and energy to cause my self to emerge before and while I am alive, this possibility may continue to exist after I have died. As long as matter and energy allow this "life space" of possibilities, this self that went through this particular history will be a possibility. This condition should hold as long as the conditions set by matter and energy hold in this and other regions of space. This set of possibilities may exist for billions of years if our cosmology is correct.





Patterns of interacting components require (or create?) time in order to move through series of steps which allow the pattern to emerge. It is easy to percieve the self as not moving through time and to consider it as one entity whereby time passes by. But we move through time, how else would we be able to observe the second hand on a clock move while still seeming like one self?





UN-EXPRESSED POSSIBILITY


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SOUL CONCENTRATE






Can one self exist in two places at the same time and be aware of the other's awareness at the same time she is aware of her own self?





Yes, but for only "one" definable initial group of moments during which time they will both know exactly what the other is thinking and experiencing. All subsequent moments will not be as identical as the initial conditions of that starting group of moments.





As the same song can play from numerous copies of a musical piece, the self, you, may emerge as this recognizable song does from the copies of the musical piece. If our self emerges from the the events that take place in the brain and body this same self may emerge if these conditions are met in any other medium that performs identical actions. You are present at a live musical event, you listen to numerous recordings of it later, same songs, but you know they are copies. Is it the same songs that you hear or are they different but identical songs? What if the self, the one you are experiencing at this moment, consists of this pattern wherever it plays and in whatever medium. Are we the medium or the pattern? Are we this version or that or are we those versions? Or could it be that if these versions share a close enough similarirty that they are this version that we are now? (paradox?)





If all the information for the state of the earth, during a specified segment of time, were recorded and played on two other formable planets precisely as on the original earth, how long would they perform identical actions before their patterns began to diverge? With this many variable and feedback influences it seems that some sort of distortion or mutation would alter both systems causing them to diverge along their own paths.





So it is not the location of the pattern but what the pattern does --- it makes you appear to exist to you and others ---.....In you head and body you are resulting from a pattern of activity. Whenever this pattern takes place your self, the same self your experiencing now, takes place.





Could it be that the difference between two clones of my "self" from each other, after the first group of moments could be as different from each other as the difference between my current self and all of my past selves, memories, or moments?





Could it be that the location of my self (group of interacting patterns) in this body constantly moves around in a "self space"? If this is the case there is no single location where a self or a minimal amount of moments which would allow one to be aware of the moment, exists. This would help explain why we seem to be one self while we move through time.





All experienced versions, or past moments, may be gone and there are, at this time, only subsequent versions, or moments, which lead to the perception of this self. If we could perfectly duplicate a small group of past moments wouldn't they be aware of only what the prior or copied set was aware of? Even if this same self only re-experienced those moments but the medium in which they take place is functional wouldn't this self seem to itself to go on experiencing moments. But, once again, wouldn't this identical set of initial moments be only a clone that thinks that it is you? Probably if that is what you are now doing; being a clone that is thouroughly convinced that it is that self, that you now seem to be.

















































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