Continuum experiments
Continuum experiments are a type of experiment that is part of a sequence of experiments where each member in the sequence is close to their adjacent experiments in all ways but in their independent variable or variables. In the case of the independent variable they can be made as close as physically possible and, or desirable. In the experiment where vinegar is mixed with baking soda, the independent variable could be the temperature and the dependent variable could be the reaction speed. A continuum set of experiments could start at any temperature with exacting amounts of ingredients and environmental conditions. The temperature can be increased or decreased by any amount. Lets start at absolute zero and see what the reaction speed will be. There may be no reaction because the vinegar is mostly made of water and the water is frozen so the baking soda and the vinegar do not mix so there is no reaction. We can now increase the temperature any amount holding all the variables the same. Lets say we increase it one degree at each successive experiment. As long as the vinegar is frozen there will be little reaction except possible at the boundary layer where the two compounds are touching. There is however, a phase transition of the vinegar around 32 degrees F. where it melts. It now becomes a liquid and the dumping of the baking soda on top of the vinegar starts a reaction of chemical change and the production of gas that did not happen much before. The process of gas production (bubbling) helps the mixing of the two ingredients making the process proceed faster. One degree is not the smallest amount of change that can occur in the independent variable of temperature. These continuum experiments can be broken down into one hundredth, one thousand, or one millionth of a degree F., or any other desired amount of temperature change from one experiment to the next. Assuming that these experiments will produce various amount of melted vinegar there could be a nice continuous change in the amount of reaction with the amount of melted vinegar. However, it is not this simple the acetic acid might melt faster or slower that the water that it is in or it may stay in solution no matter what the temperature. Salt and alcohol become concentrated when the water it is in freezes.
Continuums experiments are useful when used within the science of superimmortality when consciousness and ixperiencitness are the dependent variables and any number of different physical factors can be the independent variable. Continuums experiments can determine if consciousness and ixperiencitness change relatively slowly or abruptly at one point in the sequence of experiments. If the results seem to be abrupt then experiments can be created where the independent variable changes in smaller and smaller amounts to see if the change is abrupt at one point or a sequence of closely spaced points.
We can imagine the continuum experiment where the matter is exchanged in the body with matter functioning in the same way from outside the body. Lets say there is an original and a cidentireplica of this original. Most people would say that since they are not the same person they can not have the same ixperiencitness. The science of superimmortality on the other hand, predicts that they are not the same person but will have the same ixperiencitness and consciousness. We can now imagine the two switching matter from the same parts of their bodies like atoms on a finger tip on one to the the same place on the other person and visa versa. When all of the matter is switched between the cidentireplica and the original, superimmortality predicts that they had the same ixperiencitness to begin with and now they still have the same ixperiencitness. And since they are supposed to still be continuing identical replicas of each other they are still producing identical consciousnesses. But conventional wisdom is that they now have exchanged their ixperiencitnesses. The continuum experiment is supposed to determine when this occurred. Was it a gradual process where with the first exchange of atoms there is a gradual switching of ixperiencitness. If this is so what does it mean? If switching matter changes the ixperiencitness then because matter is constantly being exchanged in the body of every person with matter outside of it, you and everyone else do not have exactly the same ixperiencitness from moment to moment. And since most of the matter even the matter in the bones is exchange in approximately 10 years you no longer experience the consciousness that your body produces in less than ten years. Where does this new ixperiencitness come from and why this one and no other? Don't get ixperiencitness confused with consciousness, the consciousness that your body is producing is always changing, but you are experiencing that consciousness.
On the other hand if there is not gradual change in the ixperiencitness with the exchange in matter between the original and cidentireplica, but yet at the end of the process their different ixperiencitnesses have switched, then there has to be a place where the ixperiencitness changes completely. Lets say that the point of change in the ixperiencitness was at a fifty percentile point in the exchange of matter. Does this mean that with the exchange of one atom the ixperiencitness switches? The experiment can be carried out over and over again where the last atom switched is any atom in the body. A continuum sequence of experiments could break down the process further than just an atom, it could even move one subatomic particle at a time in this one atom. so the switch of a single subatomic particle causes the ixperiencitness switch. An even more bizarre situation could be that this one atom could be switched back and forth between bodies over and over again switching the ixperiencitness back and forth over and over again. Having a point of ixperiencitness change with a very small independent variable change (like the change of one atom) causes many theory problems. For example, how can one single random atom switch cause a complete change in ixperiencitness when all of the previous atom switches and all of the future atom switches have no effect on the ixperiencitness at all?
There is not just one independent variable that can be changed over a continuum sequence of experiments. The matter can be rearranged in the original like naturally occurs in the body but faster so for example, all the carbon atoms that are in the feet are now exchanged to be in the brain, but the hydrogen atoms in the brain are now moved to the liver. Any number of different switches can be imagined. Do any of these different switches of matter within the body change the ixperiencitness produced if the resulting physapath stays the same?
