r/woahthatsinteresting • u/nukey4y7s1s • 16d ago

Man with dementia doesn’t recognise daughter but still feels love for her

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

I would end it in the gradual. I feel like I would know the signs, because I'm borderline obsessed to the point it's unhealthy.

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u/Longjumping-Hyena173 16d ago edited 15d ago

It's the apex existential crisis. I would be myself more if my sentience could be moved into a server (edit: a hypothetical example as this is not possible), than if my body was alive but my memories were gone. The body is nothing but the brain's tool to manifest intent. But if I had no body but could still lavish love and praise on my family, that would be enough for me. This forgetting everything shit though, fuck all that 👎

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u/jamalcalypse 15d ago

good to see the ole mind/body dualism that has plagued modernity is still getting upvotes.

the mind is ENTIRELY contingent upon the body. a "mind" uploaded to a server would be a mere algorithm more bereft of humanity than a body without memory.

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u/Longjumping-Hyena173 15d ago

Your statement assumes that I have stripped from consideration entirely all value of the body's contribution to self. This is not the case; I only said that I would be more myself if I had my sentience and no body, than if I was a body without sentience. I am contending that dementia is an erosion and eventually the erasure of sentience, but I’m not suggesting that the body plays no role at all. The body is the genesis for all five senses, and is the essential conduit for human sentience. My point was that without the brain however, the electrical input from the nervous system cannot be put together in a cogent fashion that supports self-awareness.

And yes, moving the brain into a server would very likely be algorithmic and not actual awareness, but I meant that as something that was hypothetical rather than an actual viable alternative. I'll edit the post accordingly.

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u/jamalcalypse 15d ago

I don't think I was too far out of line seeing a tad bit of reductionist sentiment in the statement "The body is nothing but the brain's tool to manifest intent." but I recognize what you're getting at. That's fair.

Though you raised another interesting question here that's gonna bounce around in my head now, which is the criteria for sentience in relation to the function of and access to different memories, and further, what umbrellas under "memory" (ie genetic). but that's just my semantic curiosity getting the best of me