Ocofan
Engineer
This is the YouTube video in question quoting Neil de Grasse Tyson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D05ej8u-gU
In it Neil believes there is wonder in the fact that when you look into the night sky you can feel a sense of belonging by relating the atoms in your body to those of the ones forged in distant stars.
I sort of went about it in a depressing way: that at one point in time your body has a certain set of atoms/molecules, over time this set (although conserved) has been replaced with an identical set of atoms/molecules as your body removes waste and replenishes tissues with nutrients. So then its not really the molecules themselves that you can claim 'make you, you'. Although the body you inhabit contains a specific sequence of genes it is merely the product of countless generations of living creatures before you. I feel its more like your consciousness is like a block of stone (maybe slightly affected by genes) that for the most part is sculpted by your past experiences. Your consciousness is the embodiment of a combined set of historical events specific to different times and places. I kind of felt that there's no such thing as 'you', but just a living, breathing physical body that reacts at a present moment in time based on past experiences, and that there's nothing really special about people to begin with.
I felt Neil was trying to connect people with the universe, but I ended up feeling more disconnected. What are you thoughts?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D05ej8u-gU
In it Neil believes there is wonder in the fact that when you look into the night sky you can feel a sense of belonging by relating the atoms in your body to those of the ones forged in distant stars.
I sort of went about it in a depressing way: that at one point in time your body has a certain set of atoms/molecules, over time this set (although conserved) has been replaced with an identical set of atoms/molecules as your body removes waste and replenishes tissues with nutrients. So then its not really the molecules themselves that you can claim 'make you, you'. Although the body you inhabit contains a specific sequence of genes it is merely the product of countless generations of living creatures before you. I feel its more like your consciousness is like a block of stone (maybe slightly affected by genes) that for the most part is sculpted by your past experiences. Your consciousness is the embodiment of a combined set of historical events specific to different times and places. I kind of felt that there's no such thing as 'you', but just a living, breathing physical body that reacts at a present moment in time based on past experiences, and that there's nothing really special about people to begin with.
I felt Neil was trying to connect people with the universe, but I ended up feeling more disconnected. What are you thoughts?