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Comment by augusto-moura | Hacker News Reader

I don't think I agree with you. There are multiple examples in society of damaged nervous system connections with the brain, spine cord damage for example, where the personality of the pacient changes little. In the same sense, losing limbs or entire sections of your body (aside from psychological trauma and other psychological consequences) don't affect personality that much

Of course the nervous system is much more complex, but damage to the brain almost always result in some sort of cognitive dysfunction or personality change, see the Phineas Gage case for example.

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>In the same sense, losing limbs or entire sections of your body (aside from psychological trauma and other psychological consequences) don't affect personality that much

"There aren't any changes except for all of the changes, but those changes don't count because reasons."

I don't know how many amputees you know; you may know many. I was in the army for 10 years during the height of the global war on terror and know more than most. Not a single one is the same as they were pre-amputation. Could be the trauma that caused the amputation, could be the amputation. I'm not an amputationologist.

I do assert that a holo-techno-brain will need a shit-ton of e-drugs to deal with being amputated from its fucking body.

The bacteria in your butthole are a part of you just like your brain, maybe less, but they ARE a part of you.

> Could be the trauma that caused the amputation, could be the amputation.

Given the personality changes seen in people who go off to fight in the military and who end up coming back fully physically intact, I think it's more likely that the personality changes here were caused by the trauma, not by the amputation.

I'm not saying the latter isn't possible, but absent evidence to the contrary, it doesn't make much sense to assume the personality changes occurred because of the amputation alone.

Also consider that amputation -- even ignoring whatever trauma precipitated it -- is its own sort of trauma. I imagine if someone came up to me, perfectly physically healthy, knocked me out, and cut off my leg, I would wake up and develop emotional trauma that would cause personality changes.

I see what you mean- but consider that the gut does seem to play a significant role in mood and mental health. The enteric nervous system may not hold memories, but it seems to have something to do with personality and digestion issues can have negative cognitive effects.

Agree that discomfort can cause temporary problems, and sometimes chronic problems in parts of the body can cause life long cognitive impairment. But that is not to say that these represent "you" or your personality. You brain could still function perfectly without those body conditions.

And for the gut example the brain actually does work normally, stomach and instetines removal (and other related surgeries) are fairly common procedures and I don't hear of people complaining about personality changes. Of course, those types of procedures are extremely invasive in a sistemic way, and not only your mental state, but multiple other parts of the body need to re-adapt. But I truly believe "you" will be still be "you" inside your brain

PS.: I quoted "you" because discussions about the identity of one-self are much more complex, just regard it as the most high level definition of the concept

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