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- Title
The Twin Vantage Point Paradox: A Thought Experiment.
- Authors
Jalal, Baland; Ramachandran, Vilayanur S.
- Abstract
As noted by Erwin Schrödinger, in the world of physics the subjective vantage point does not exist. Indeed, physics requires that the conscious “self ” who experiences the world be banished from reality. This article highlights this schism running right through the heart of reality using a thought experiment. The reader imagines himself as a twin being asked by a “super-scientist”: “If I travel back in time and swap you at birth with your twin (now an adult who lives in an adjacent city), and then return to the present, who would you prefer that I torture here and now — the person standing in front of me — or the person in the other city?” To this question (ethical considerations aside), you might answer, “torture the twin in front of you” — that is, you would assume given the swap that you would be existentially continuous with the twin now living in the adjacent city and vice versa. This culminates in a paradox: while for you, such a swap matters crucially, according to science, the final state of the universe is the same regardless of the swap. This paradox does not exist from a scientific objective view of reality — only from a subjective existential point of view. To our knowledge, this issue of continuity of form and function, and the fact that the physical universe is the same irrespective of the swap, is not part of many published thought experiments exploring personal identity.
- Subjects
SCHISM; SCIENTIFIC knowledge; THOUGHT &; thinking; EMOTIONS; NEUROSCIENCES
- Publication
Journal of Mind & Behavior, 2017, Vol 38, Issue 2, p111
- ISSN
0271-0137
- Publication type
Article