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Time and the idea of Self

I've come to realize that time, and the meaning we give it underlies so many decisions and conflict in life. We're 3 dimensional beings that can only experience time in a single direction. And given that, what time frames do we optimise for in our choices? Leaving the dishes on the table is me optimising for the now. Putting on running gear and heading out into the cold outdoors is me optimising for the future. Savings. Putting $5 away a day into an investment account instead of buying a coffee is in itself a verdict of what time frame you care about in terms of those $5 (10-years-into-the-future-Leo would get to reap $11k of benefit!).

And then there is the factor of Self. Should I miss my bus to help this old lady cross the street? Do I donate to a non profit to greatly benefit someone else halfway across the world at the expense of the birthday present my daughter has been asking for? When push comes to shove, we all have a prioritization of selves. Myself vs Them-selves: my pets, my family, my coworkers, my friends, my countrymen.

Both of these two concepts of time and Self seem independent at first glance, but they're in fact siblings in the same family. The version of me 5 minutes from now is a different self and as abstract as a neighbor or actor in the television set. There is nothing observable, tangible that connects us beyond a mental concept that future me and past me are the same being. But we are not. There is no guarantee that future me even exists! A meteor may strike in the next 4 minutes. Or even more fundamentally, perhaps I am merely living this same split second on repeat. Like groundhog day, but in a single second. While I can see my 3D self, and see my hands and toes and thus support the belief I have 10 toes and 10 fingers, I cannot see future nor past me. Those are just manifestations of memory and imagination, and not observable nor verifiable to present Me.

And that brings us back to the fundamental question that's really behind everything we do. If past and future me are separate selves, then time is merely just another dimension that separates these selves from my current self. The dimensions can be Time, Race, Citizenship, Friendship, Familial ties... the list goes on.

And if all selves are indeed not Our Self, including future and our past selves - which self should we be optimising for, and why? If we discard the other selves, that means we should do the most pleasurable thing in the moment. But if we reject this - what is the alternative? Which of the other Selves are more important? Is Leo 1 year in the future more important than Summer 2 hours from now, which is more important than someone starving to death in Africa, right now? There is no right answer, but the realisation here is that disagreements in politics ultimately come down to this very question. Should the US fund USAID? Should we cut carbon emissions which is painful now, but pays off for future generations? Should a politician stick to the truth and potentially lose an election, in order to benefit the greater good?

Two last closing thoughts.

  1. A friend of mine recently suggested that the world will become a better place eventually when humans find a way to upload their consciousness, and meld it into one. In a sense - we would combine all of the selves in present time into a single self, thus eradicating a lot of issues around inequality, and the tension of which selves matter more. But even then the conflict would not end - as that being would have to square away how to balance present Self vs future Selves.

  2. A great fear with AI is that we would land in a Skynet scenario where a single AI mind rises up and wipes out humanity - even putting aside it potentially having more smarts and a faster reaction time than any of the humans, in my opinion the greatest unbeatable advantage is that it would not be slowed down by petty human selfishness. It would be able to coordinate and execute its plan across all machines as one being. But perhaps this particular fear is overblown. Why should we assume after all that the equilibrium would be a single AI entity, and not multiple AIs with their own self interests, vying for advantages over each other?