Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

A Conversation with Einstein’s Brain 445TORTOISE:: Your head? You would have no head, remember.ACHILLES: No head? Then where would I be? \\hat is going on here?TORTOISE:: You'd be at all those different places at once, conversations with all thosepeople.ACHILLES: How would it feel to be conducting conversations with several people at atime?TORTOISE:: Why don't yon just imagine what it would be like to ask Einstein,presuming, of course, that you had made several copies of ho catalogue, andshipped them about to various of your friends, or anyone, for that matter, and theytoo were talking with him.ACHILLES: Well, if 'I didn't tell the Einstein in my possession about it, he'd have no wayto know of the other catalogues or conversations. After all, each catalogue has noway of being influenced by any of the other catalogues. So I guess he'd just saythat he certainly didn't feel like he was engaging in more than one discussion at atime.TORTOISE: So that's how you'd feel too, if several of you were engaging IIIsimultaneous conversations.ACHILLES: I? Which one would be me?TORTOISE: Any of them: all of them: or perhaps, none of them.ACHILLES: This is eerie. I don't know where I would be-if anywhere. \nd all of thoseweird catalogues would be claiming to be me.TORTOISE: Well, you should expect as much: you do it yourself, don't you? Why, Icould even introduce a pair of you-or all of you-to each other.ACHILLES: Uh-oh. I was waiting for this moment. Every time I see you, you springsomething like this on me.TORTOISE: There just might ensue a teeny scrap over which one was the real one, don'tyou think so?ACHILLES:: Oh, this is a diabolical scheme to squeeze the juice out of the human soul.I'm losing a clear sight of who "I" is. Is "I" a person? A process? A structure inmy brain? Or is "I" some uncapturable essence that feels what goes on in mmbrain?ACHILLES:: An interesting question. Let us go hack to Einstein. to examine it. DidEinstein die, or seas he kept on living by the creation of the catalogue?ACHILLES: Well, to all appearances, some part of his spirit was kept alive by the factthat the data were recorded.