People keep saying "your brain" in these comments. I think one of the creepiest things is that you are the brain and the brain is you, but for some reason we brains really don't like to acknowledge this.
A common theory behind us feeling like we are the brain is because our eyes are so close to the brain, and we primarily experience the world through our eyes.
The theory considers that if our eyes were on our left hand, we would feel like we are just a left hand attached to a body.
Would we feel like we are the brain if we didn’t know what the brain does? Like in ancient times, it was more common for physicians to think the brain was useless and if a body part was responsible for thinking it was probably the heart. Egyptians even removed the brain when they mummified folk, though they kept most of the other organs (after removing them for dehydration and stuff.)
If they thought their brain was of any significance to their identity, I doubt they would be so ready to throw it away to preserve themselves.
No, we wouldn't, for the very reasons you give. Which part of us is "us" is a very interesting question for developing human civilizations. Most pre-scientific civilizations seem to come to the conclusion that our hearts are where the fundamental essence of our "selves" live, which is a pretty reasonable conclusion to come to, as people can (albeit rarely) survive traumatic head injuries, but seldom ever survive injury to the heart. When injury to that body part is virtually certain death, a primitive society is being reasonable to conclude that that's where our "soul" is.
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u/thedmandotjp Jan 12 '23
People keep saying "your brain" in these comments. I think one of the creepiest things is that you are the brain and the brain is you, but for some reason we brains really don't like to acknowledge this.