Human selfhood isn’t about essence, argues ASU’s Brad Allenby, Lincoln Professor of Engineering and Ethics and one of the co-directors of Emerge. It’s about information. We are an information-processing species; our personal identities are deeply rooted in what we know and how we know it.
“A self is constructed of information,” writes Allenby in a Future Tense article for Slate. “Consciousness is about managing information, and free will, if it is to mean anything, requires us to have and process information about ourselves, our environment, and the (probable) results of our actions. This makes one point crystal clear: Anything that profoundly changes information will profoundly change us.” Read the full article at Future Tense to learn more about our rapidly transforming selves.
Allenby’s article is part of a series exploring this year’s theme, “The Future of Me.” Learn more and RSVP at emergeasu.wpengine.com.