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What is it like to be a bat?

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180 points adityaathalye | 1 comments | 03 Sep 25 17:48 UTC | HN request time: 0.279s | source
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bettating ◴[03 Sep 25 19:26 UTC] No.45119554[source]▶
What is it like to be another person?
replies(2): >>45119704 #>>45119813 #
esafak ◴[03 Sep 25 19:45 UTC] No.45119704[source]▶
I'm not sure how to answer the even more fundamental question, "What is it like to be yourself?" What constitutes a valid answer? It's a vague question.
replies(2): >>45119865 #>>45120060 #
the_af ◴[03 Sep 25 20:29 UTC] No.45120060[source]▶
True. I suppose every one of us has asked:

What makes me me? Whatever you identify as "yourself", how come it lives within your body? Why is there not someone else living inside your body? Why was I born, specifically "me", and not someone else?

This has puzzled me since childhood.

replies(2): >>45122132 #>>45122583 #
1. accrual ◴[04 Sep 25 00:47 UTC] No.45122132[source]▶
I think about this sometimes. From the POV of being in the human body I feel we must all be "me". If I wasn't here having this specific subjective experience as a human user on hackernews, then I would be someone or something else having another or "their" experience.

If that's not the case then I'll just have no subjective experience, same as before I was born/instantiated.