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The Single Mind Theory of Consciousness
Consciousness as communication and coherence
There’s a classic scene in The Simpsons where Marge says to Homer that one day he will regret not having spent more time with his kids, to which Homer replies, “That’s a problem for future Homer. Man, I don’t envy that guy!” — then drinks a cocktail of vodka and mayonnaise. It’s a laugh-out-loud moment, but it also highlights a deep question in the philosophy of mind that, when examined deeply, leads to startling conclusions.
The question is why it is that we think of the experiences of our distant future and distant past selves — people who may in many ways be very different from who we are now — as things that happen to us, as opposed to some other person? Why do we feel fear at the prospect of suffering in our future, or excitement at the anticipation of pleasure? We could, like Homer, instead think of our future self as a different person, whom we might pity or envy, but whose plight is fundamentally distinct from our own.
The obvious answer is that of course I will feel different emotions about my own future than about the plight of others, since I won’t go through the experiences of other bodies, but I will undergo all the experiences of this body. If we define a mind or a self as a kind of container of conscious experiences that are distributed…
