【ego definition】
"Who am I?"
The simplest answer to this question is the “ego” that we will discuss today.
If you open the dictionary, "ego" is generally considered to be "self" or "self".
Also, in philosophy, it is expressed as "self against all things in heaven and earth" and "ego".
Furthermore, in psychology, it is said to be "an individual's consciousness/idea about himself/herself."
In short, it is the “self” that you think of right now.
So what is that “self”?
In the first place, when defining "ego", using the word "myself" as a synonym would lead to a circular explanation.
It seems that the definition above only describes the attributes of the "ego".
In this blog, “ego” is defined as follows.
``Ego'' is a continuous qualia for ``brain world model'' which includes the accumulation of past ``consciousness'' information.
【Compressed past】
"Consciousness" is a qualia that has "temporal unidirectional progression/spatio-temporal localization" created by your "brain world model".
In other words, "consciousness" manifests "here and now" in the "brain world model"
However, "here and now" drifts toward the past one after another as time passes.
The "consciousness" of "here and now" at one moment changes to the "information" of the "consciousness" that existed in the past at the next moment.
Unlike when you were a baby, you already have a complete "memory circuit".
The "consciousness" that has become a thing of the past will be accumulated as "information" in the "brain world model".
This “information” is said to deteriorate over time.
You remember burning meat on the barbecue last summer vacation, but your memory of elementary school graduation is vague.
Why does "information" deteriorate?
"Memory" has a fixed capacity, and every time new "information" comes in, old information may be lost.
However, have you ever had the experience of vividly reviving a scene from the past at some point?
How can this be explained?
Apparently, the past information is just "compressed" rather than "disappeared".
This is because compressed information can be decompressed.
Furthermore, this "compression" could have been built as an aggressive system.
This is because the proposition of “enhanced species conservation potential” engineered into your DNA prioritizes current or nearer current information over past information.
By removing details from past information, leaving only the gist of it, access time to the information can be shortened, and decision processing can be performed more efficiently.
For example, when a thug points a knife at you in a dark tunnel, you are immediately forced to choose between fighting off the thug or running away from him.
At this time, if you can't stop remembering how you peeled apples with a knife when you were little, how delicious apples tasted, and how your mother scolded you for taking out a knife without permission, you're putting your life in danger. will be
【Relationship between Consciousness and Ego】
Let's get back to "ego".
In the "brain world model" that contains the accumulated past "consciousness" information, all the information from the time you remembered, that is, the past when you started remembering, to the present will be lined up.
And the qualia that senses from the past to the present as a continuous "consciousness" at the same time is the "ego".
From this process of generating the "ego", the subjectivity of the "self", which is its characteristic, emerges.
"Consciousness" was based on the whole "brain world model", and "you" was not there.
However, by recognizing the continuity from the "past consciousness" to the "current consciousness", the "identity of the subject" was confirmed.
In other words, I became aware of the existence of the ego, which overlooks everything from the past to the present.
When this "ego" is reached, "you" as the subject finally appears.
By the way, "ego" manifests in the same "third brain" as "consciousness".
Because "ego" is a continuum of "consciousness" and is in the same category.