Consciousness, brains and the replica problem
arXiv Preprint Archive December 7, 2007 Ricard V. Sole
Consciousness is thought to emerge from brain activity, but the mapping between neural hardware and conscious experience is not one-to-one; multiple conscious patterns can arise from the same hardware. A thought experiment shows that any temporary shutdown of brain activity irreversibly ends the original conscious experience. Without a guaranteed continuous stream of consciousness, the previous self vanishes and a new self replaces it.