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How nice would it be to have multiple consciousness?
Whadda ya mean?
Like, being a biploar?
No. Think of it… as being a hydra, maybe. With its multiple heads. And with each head—
The hell issa hydra?
It’s like, that crazy mythical serpent with thousands of heads!
Well, not quite a thousand. It’s usually depicted with six or so, I believe… But that’s besides the point. My point is, if you could have multiple copies of your own conscious, that could all simultaneously work on different individual tasks, yet exist as one being, wouldn’t that be great?
Yer high as shit.
Whoa, potty mouth!
Seriously, think about it! All the work you’d be able to accomplish in a day! You could assign one conscious to write your paper, assign the second one to write another paper, assign the third one to conduct the research for that paper, and then assign the other ones to read a book or watch TV or something relaxing so that the other consciousnesses aren’t so stressed out.
As long as I’m the one chillin’ then heck if I care.
But, like, wouldn’t they be stressed out anyway because they’re, like, doing the heavy work while the others relax?
They’d all exist as one; all in the same boat. One’s stress is another’s stress, and likewise, one’s pleasure is another’s pleasure.
Ha! Pleaaasure. Mmhmmm~
That’d be, like, incredibly hard to focus.
Assume you’re capable of managing all those consciousnesses. Think of a supercomputer. Able to process those tasks all at once. Able to feel those emotions all at once. Think of how efficient people would become. A factory worker could be assembling all the parts at the same time. A writer could be working on multiple books at the same time, and perhaps have a few consciouses to spare for grant writing or research. And a scientist! A scientist could carry out five experiments at once! He or she could discover a cure five times faster! And still have one conscious for going to research parties!
To hell with efficiency. Y’all can do yer work thang, and I’ll be o’er here spendin’ it allll fer pleasure!
But hey wait a sec, how could you be assembling all those parts at the same time if you only had, like, one body?
Oh, I suppose you’re right. Unless you had multiple bodies, or a clone of yourself. But then that would take more living space, and more resources to feed all of those bodies.
Aw shucks, just had to ruin the fun with yer realism an’ shit.
Hey, I’m just thinking here, man!
Regardless, there are still huge possibilities for cognitive work. You might have one body, but you could gather the processing power of all your consciousnesses together to solve one problem more efficiently. Or perhaps you keep at least several consciousnesses running at a time while the others recovered, effectively eliminating the need to sleep per se, so long as you keep feeding your body and giving it resting time.
Or be more efficient at perducing dumbass thoughts.
There’ll be world peace, like, instantly!
Well, I don’t think it would dumb-down that easily. World problems already have several minds working towards making the world a safer place. Yet we still don’t have world peace today. But perhaps if the greater minds were able to think more efficiently, we’d make our way there faster.
I wouldn’t count on that. They’ll be thinkin’ of better ways to exploit their own wealth.
So wait, but, like, what if the separate consciousnesses didn’t work together. Say, maybe they got into like an argument or something?
Well, that’s not very likely. They’re all the same person. You don’t go around arguing with yourself all the time do you?
Well, I suppose not. But, like, what if they do? And then they got mad enough at each other to try and kill one another?
Then it’s lights out fer you my friend!
I suppose that’d be pretty bad, if one conscious got mad enough at the others to urge the body to jump off a bridge the next time it got a chance to, effectively killing them all.
I wonder if that’d be, like, classified as suicide or homicide.
Doesn’t matter, hombre. Yer dead either way.
Come to think about it, that’d be pretty devastating if the person was prone to depression. They’d be six times as likely to get suicidal thoughts. Or if they’re mentally deranged, they’d be six times more efficient at falling into a state of madness. One broken gear and the whole system falls apart.
Well, good thing that’s, like, not the way it works.
Hell if I’d care, wouldda been great fer me.
But that’s, like, the only thing you care about!
You ‘ave a problem with that?
I do! You gotta think about the other people man!
What good issere in that?!
Guys—
Like, self fulfillment! And belonging!
F— that! You an’ yer dumbass glitter-an-rainbow ideas.
Hey!! I have feelings too, man!!
Yeeah, suure. Why don’t you jump offa bridge or somethin’. See how much I care.
MAYBE I WILL! AND IT’LL BE YOUR DARN FAULT IF I DO!!
Oh dear.