Tentum

Latest revision as of 08:04, 11 September 2025

A tentum, Latin for "to stretch" or "to extend," is a single period of sentience bookended by the loss of sentience. This experiential span between unconsciousness is the only "guaranteed quantity" of experiential time that one can reasonably assume at a given outpost.

Once one is unconscious whether by being knocked-out, asleep, in a coma, or dead, then you have a discrete and definitive bookend in which the egonaut could switch, in which case, you wouldn't wake up in your body tomorrow, but someone else (or more specifically another egonaut) would. This possible phenomenon is called Ego Divisus.

Understanding Tentums

Imagine Person A wakes up, stays awake for 12 hours, then goes back to sleep instantly. This would be a 12 hour tentum.

If Person A regains sentience while asleep by having a dream for 30 minutes, then loses sentience again, that would be a 30 minute tentum.

If Person A wakes up 6 hours later and then dies suddenly 4 hours after that, that would be a 4 hour tentum.

Cloning Example

The Cloning Example for tentums goes as follows:

If every night when you fall asleep, some mad scientist made an exact atomic replica of you, disintegrated the original you without a trace, and placed the replica where you fell asleep, you would feel just as you do now.
All of your memories are just stored information; your egonaut didn't need to be the one to experience the moments, it just needs to have access to those stored memory now.

Likewise, this exact replica would feel everyday like it had been there being you for your entire life despite having only been created hours prior. Is this the answer to our concept of identity and the persistence of self? Does the ship of Theseus sail at day and port at night?

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-While you may think this should be an entire lifetime or some stage of life, you are only actually sure you are experiencing existence via your body right now.
+A '''tentum''', Latin for "to stretch" or "to extend," is a single period of sentience bookended by the loss of sentience. This experiential span between unconsciousness is the only "guaranteed quantity" of experiential time that one can reasonably assume at a given [[outpost]].
-If every night when you fell asleep, some mad scientist made an exact atomic replica of you, disintegrated the original you without a trace, and placed the replica where you fell asleep, you would feel just like you do now.
+Once one is unconscious whether by being knocked-out, asleep, in a coma, or dead, then you have a discrete and definitive bookend in which the [[egonaut]] could switch, in which case, you wouldn't wake up in your body tomorrow, but someone else (or more specifically another [[egonaut]]) would. This possible phenomenon is called [[Ego Divisus]].
-All of your memories are just stored information; your egonaut didn't need to be the one to experience the moments, it just needs to have access to this stored memory now.
+== Understanding Tentums ==
-Likewise, this exact replica would feel everyday like it had been there being you for your entire life despite having only been created hours prior. Is this the answer to our concept of identity and the persistence of self? Does the ship of Theseus sail at day and port at night?
+Imagine ''Person A'' wakes up, stays awake for 12 hours, then goes back to sleep instantly. This would be a 12 hour '''tentum'''.
-This is a question that we may not be able to definitively answer yet, but the concept of a shortest guaranteed slice of experiential existence (beyond just the present moment) could come in handy.
+If ''Person A'' regains sentience while asleep by having a dream for 30 minutes, then loses sentience again, that would be a 30 minute '''tentum'''.
-As far as I can tell, it seems that the experiential span between unconsciousness is the shortest guaranteed chunk of experiential time. While I may not be able to tell if egonaut switching could be occurring between minutes or hours, moments flow consistently and smoothly from one to the next in a manner that seems unlikely to be sliced up like we are discussing.
+If ''Person A'' wakes up 6 hours later and then dies suddenly 4 hours after that, that would be a 4 hour '''tentum'''.
-However, once I am unconscious whether by being knocked-out, asleep, in a coma, or dead, then you have a discrete and definitive bookend in which the egonaut could switch, in which case, you wouldn't wake up in your body tomorrow, but someone else (or more specifically another egonaut) would.
+== Cloning Example ==
-This span of time bookended by unconsciousness which we have described we can call a tentum, which is Latin for "to stretch" or "to extend." Whether you wake up in your body tomorrow or not, this tentum is what it you have now and it will last until you it ends with a loss of consciousness.
+The '''Cloning Example''' for '''tentums''' goes as follows:<blockquote>''If every night when you fall asleep, some mad scientist made an exact atomic replica of you, disintegrated the original you without a trace, and placed the replica where you fell asleep, you would feel just as you do now.''
-This could mean that every tentum you as egonaut are in a different body and neither you nor anyone else would ever know the difference.
+''All of your memories are just stored information; your [[egonaut]] didn't need to be the one to experience the moments, it just needs to have access to those stored memory now.''
-This could be the case.
+''Likewise, this exact replica would feel everyday like it had been there being you for your entire life despite having only been created hours prior. Is this the answer to our concept of identity and the persistence of self? Does the ship of Theseus sail at day and port at night?''</blockquote>
-I am not saying this is certain on a more or less daily basis, but I do find it very compelling that this would occur if you were teleported using some sci-fi instrument, or if you could completely stop and then reignite brain activity.
-However, if egonauts can switch between tentums, then every day you may wake up as someone or something else at a different time and you would never be the wiser.
-If this is how experiential reality actually unfolds, then it doesn't necessarily change the infinity journey as a whole, but it would make the transition from tentum to tentum far choppier and more erratic if they could be viewed from outside.
-This possibility we can call Ego Divisus, Latin for "Self Divided."
-Before moving on, it is critical that you understand this concept. If you are still struggling with this idea, refer to the Appendix B.
 == See Also ==
-{{seealso|}}
+{{seealso|[[Egonaut]], [[Outpost]], [[Ego Divisus]]}}
 {{Seealsowiki|}}