The closer you look at identity, the less defined and distinct it appears. I’m either the entire river with its myriad sources and tributaries or I’m whatever sliver of water flowing in its path. It doesn’t much matter either way. I think the meaning of such a thing is more distributed across the minds capable of understanding it, as it is with language, a sort of gaussian distribution whose peak is the average understanding, which shifts depending on what part of the local extelligence you have access to.
The closer you look at identity, the less defined and distinct it appears. I’m either the entire river with its myriad sources and tributaries or I’m whatever sliver of water flowing in its path. It doesn’t much matter either way. I think the meaning of such a thing is more distributed across the minds capable of understanding it, as it is with language, a sort of gaussian distribution whose peak is the average understanding, which shifts depending on what part of the local extelligence you have access to.