The illusion of a stream

I reason that consciousness is not a continuous stream, and in fact humans do not have a single, continuous mind but a procession of 'snapshot' minds:

Humans are not conscious in the future or the past, only the present, but they are aware of events in the past which left a physical imprint on the matter which sustains their consciousness in the form of neural growth. New minds are endlessly created and consumed as the physical form of one's brain changes shape, but the illusion of a stream of consciousness is caused by the retention of physical memory. You feel like you have been continually conscious for most of your life but you are actually only a single mental 'pixel' which will cease to exist as soon as your current brain structure does, which will occur momentarily. A new, seperate mind will then emerge from your grey matter, and so forth.

I feel this idea has few implications for morality or identity but may be an important insight into the nature of consciousness. Does anyone agree?

I agree that consciousness is not in the past or the future only now.I'm not so sure about the example of the mental pixel.I don't see the ceasing and starting that you state.Rather,I think consciousness continually grows as the experiences of the individual contribute to the expansion of the consciousness.

I'm arguing that the reason you aren't aware of any 'ceasing and starting' is because of physical memory in the form of neurons, meaning you retain what seems like a consistant, single identity when in fact you have been a countless number of individual minds.

I do not see mind as being necessary for consciousness. Perhaps we need to agree on what defines mind.
I know that our attention turns on and off but I am not sure that consciousness does. I see a possibility that consciousness could be a "stream".On the other hand Buddha said that there were something like twelve million mind moments per second.. thats a lot of stills. He must have been watching a very smooth video at the time since our eye usually has no problem with 40fps.

I'd say twelve million minds per second.

Considering that everything has a frequency, a rate of vibration, or a cycle, your postulation is entirely plausible. How then can we prove this?

I think the burden of proof is on those who believe in a stream of consciousness. It seems a more absurd notion.

Ah I had hope of an empirical truth.

I'm not so sure of that, you brought up the theory that is newer, therefor it would seem that you have a responsibility to debunct a popularly held notion. If you wish to do so, then you should start with defining consciousness and what a "mind" really is. Then you must delve into what it is to have memories and be an individual with a personality, and the whole time saying what you believe, according to this theory, and why it's a better explanation than a stream of consciousness. I fyou are willing to put an idea out there, but not argue it and say why it's right, then it's only a thought, not a philosophy.

human mind exit nowhere the human thought also has no existanance persay therfore as in beauty is in the eyes of the beholder the concuisness is also a process in the human awareness throught awareness we may procede and move forward and unlock our sub concusness which holds all symbols and keys to our past lives
ncous

I think that mind was like space and our thoughts are like matter that occupies it.

Hmm, I can see where your going with the thought baffalobill, its pretty much in conjunction with an existent theory in quantum physics. Basically, everything existent is vibrating, or oscillating at a distinct and measurable frequency. Each 'thing', while having its own distinct frequency, in essence exists with the whole in a harmonic balance. Its a harmonic balance point which can actually be measured as the harmonic frequency of the Universe. We, humanity, are in harmonic sympathy with the Earth because we where born and exist within its harmonic field, which is actually a few points lower than the Universal field but has been slowly rising over the last few thousand years. (This is the conjecture anyway)
Now how does this apply? Well, now add 'consciousness', awareness, perception, et cetera. That everything has a measurable harmonic frequency (or aura perchance?) is a fact. This is a waveform oscillation, which, if you draw it out on a piece of paper, is seen as a wavy line. We, as awareness, see, or perceive, only the top of each wave. So basically what's coming at us is existence in a shutter effect, a very freakin' fast shutter speed, but in a shutter effect none the less. Our consciousness, or are minds, having been born into this is adapted to this 'effect' and by nature integrates all those 'points' of material awareness into a seamless, interactive 'picture', very much like a TV or movie screen.
Now awareness can be said to be eternal because if seen as a state of energy, which can be measured (think brain scans and the affect thought and direction of focus, awareness, has on the results of such scans in what can be seen as energetic activity in the mind), if seen as a state of energy, this is proven. Energy never disappearing but only changing states, or levels of oscillation. Now seeing awareness as eternally existent in one state or another what we are consciously aware of is seen as a smoothly flowing stream of material existence as our mind integrates the harmonic oscillations of the whole into one, smooth picture. Its not that 'we', or our 'mind', ceases to exist and then remakes itself, its that from our perspective, reality ceases to exist and then remakes itself, as the top of one wave flashes at us and then the top of the next and so on. 'We', as awareness, are eternal, and the energy around us has an infinite range, but we, in the harmonic zone of material existence, only perceive the points of energy within our harmonic range.
It can be said then that those who are 'fully conscious', or 'God conscious', are those that are able to 'see' more of the entire spectrum than those of us who's level or depth of perception only allows for awareness of the immediate, material 'now'.

lol, wrap your mind on that

Thanks for the plausible idea. I like the last sentence. To see it all one has to be aware of the moment between each thought

Humans are constantly conscious.

It is just the memories that are snap shots, the things your mind wants to remember creates new neural pathways. The neural pathways all work together to bring in different memories that allow each person to create their own personality.

I really like your theory but this statement is ridiculous. Just because something doesn't seem plausible to you doesn't mean the burden of proof lies solely with the old theory. It wasn't so long ago that the theory of a flat earth was the popularly held notion, it fell to those who postulated a spherical planet to prove their theory to the world. Rightly so. Just because you're right doesn't mean you are relieved of the burden of proof.

Good theories need better facts to back them up.



I think a much easier approach to this is to look at human beings as three dimensional creatures who exist in a multidimensional plane. Just because we are aware of planes existing beyond us does not mean we possess the ability to understand or exist within them.

Treating time as the fourth dimension would allow you to argue the point of us being three dimensional creatures who are constantly aware of the fourth but unable to exist within it.

That is the route I would take anyway.



If it was in fact a stream wouldn't we be able to pull from any moment of it simply by traveling back along it in our minds. The idea that it is a string of individual and separately recorded events seems much more plausible to me. Each of the tiniest moments records itself only temporarily to form a new being. Complete and drastic change can not occur unless we lapse into a completely new creature that can draw upon all of the moments that create and define us.