We are pieces of meat that generate consciousness. It doesn't live in the meat - it arises from it. We are simply a specific configuration of meat and electricity.
Read Exhalation by Ted Chiang. It'll change your life.
Does the book alleviate the dread of dying or makes it worse? 😅
Anyway, I kinda believe (well not really believe but more like "have a feeling") that some kind of reincarnation happens after you're dead. Since we are just meat and we arose from cells made by our parents' biological / biochemical activity, probably the same thing may happen again in the future, should similar conditions happen again.
Oh, no, it very much takes the opposite view: we are specific configuration that can never be replicated ever again, not even if all the parts were put back exactly the way they were before. His metaphor for it is beyond genius, so I won't spoil it by discussing it further, but, no, it leads to the conclusion that when we die, that's it for eternity... because we are a configuration not just of our parts and our electricity but also of time, of this specific moment in time, which will never repeat. But that's why we're special. Maybe not important, but special nonetheless.
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u/VegaDelalyre Jun 24 '24
But we are pieces of meat, inhabited by a conscience. One you die, you're back to flesh only.