The Hiding Place of the Soul

Several years ago I posted a blog questioning the possibility of the continuity of the sense of personal identity.  The idea started with Star Trek (as so many good ideas do).  Spock used the "transporter" to go someplace instantaneously.  Setting aside the notion of  "instant" anything, since time is not an absolute, the notion involved the disassembly of Spock into his constituent atoms and re-assembling them in another location.  Since the re-assembly was specified as an identical reassembly, i.e. every atom and molecule duplicated, the "new" Spock had the same memories, functionality and awareness that the "old" Spock did.  For the purposes of the show, this was simply instantaneous transportation.

Clearly the "new" Spock (or Spock 2) would have the sensation/illusion that he was Spock 1 and had simply moved from one location to another.  However, it's interesting to look a little more closely at Spock 1.  He went into a box of some sort and was methodically destroyed, atom by atom.  What might he experience?  Nothing.  His experience and existence came to an end with his destruction. While Spock 2 was created, Spock 1 was destroyed.  Spock 2 has the illusion that he has been alive as long as Spock 1, but this is an illusion.  Of course Spock 1 can't object:  he's dead.  His awareness ended.

The assumption that his personal awareness was transferred to Spock 2 is based on Spock 2's illusion of continuity.  Watching the show we make the same illogical conclusion, i.e. that Spock 1's "self" has been transported to a new place.  Again, Spock 1 died.  Spock 2 was created to be identical.  The atoms were not transported from Spock 1 to Spock 2.  Only the organization of those atoms was transmitted.

Suppose that Spock 2 had not been reassembled at that time, but had been in some kind of hold.  Where would Spock 1 be?  Suppose further that Spock 2 had not been assembled at all.  Where then is Spock 1?  Suppose even further that Spock 1 was reassembled wrongly, or in a different form.  Or suppose that 7 different Spock 2s had been created in different locations.  The same question is answered the same way.  Spock 1 is dead. Spock 2 is a different being with the illusion of being identical with Spock 1. 

Our illusion that Spock is transferred from one place to another is based on our belief in the existence of some unifying sense of self that somehow is not dependent on how it is constructed or located.  This unifying sense of self that we all have as a common illusion has been called the "soul" for centuries.  We believe there is something unique about us.  In fact, every single one of us has that same illusion.  The ubiquity of the illusion does not make it true.  One hundred (or one-hundred-million) dogs barking up the wrong tree doesn't make it the right  tree.

We find it hard to give up the fantasy of having a unique identity, a soul, that somehow is separate from our physical existence and/or does not depend on that physical existence.  At the same time, common sense (which is not at all common, by the way) is forced to recognize the absurdity of the idea. We believe that Spock 2 is Spock 1, because we want to believe it and we have been taught to believe it.  And Spock 1 certainly can't object:  he no longer exists. Since the rransporter transports physical objects and the "soul" is non-physical, it cannot be transported, and poor Spock 2 can't  have a soul, assuming he had one in the first place.

So watch out for transporters.  You will undoubtedly lose your soul, assuming you have one.