The Other Virtual You

The Other Virtual You

Think your <em>self</em> is real? The author thought so. His father's transformation by a brain tumor changed his mind. This short article will change yours. Here is an excerpt:<br /><br />"The suspicion that you and I are not what we seem began when I entered my father’s hospital room and saw him lying on his bed. Opaque eyes peered out of an expressionless face, the look of a man with an inoperable brain tumor. He no longer recognized most of his relatives and he was unable to count past five. Two days later he fell into a coma. He gained consciousness briefly when the tumor outran its blood supply and he was again able to count to five. Then he slipped back into a coma and the door closed. My father was gone, leaving behind a still breathing body. But he was gone. A brain tumor with the chilling name glioblastoma multiforma had appeared, grown, regressed, and resumed growth. As it did, my father was altered, disappeared, reappeared, and then was extinguished.<br /><br />"If disruption to one of your organs can distort and undo everything you are, then what, essentially, are you? I don’t mean who are you, your narrative identity. That you, made up of your life stories which you might disclose to a psychiatrist or post on Facebook, can vanish with retrograde amnesia or be deleted with a click. But you will still be there.<br /><br />"What is that you? …"