X-Message-Number: 13700 From: Joseph Kehoe <> Subject: me Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 17:44:32 +0100 > The transporter doesn't solve the problem. The way I view it, every time > someone transports, they are killed at the point that they are disassembled. > An exact copy is apparently created somewhere else. Since it behaves > exactly like the original, no one else is alarmed and since the original is > dead, there's no one to complain. Kirk died a thousand deaths. > > But if we stay in our original form to avoid the copy dilemma, how long > could we survive with our organic brains? How far could we really evolve? As > has been mentioned by Fred C., we'd soon fall far behind those who do > upload. I don't know the solution. Wish I did though. Philosophically this problem has been around for a long time (since before Socrates) "I can never step into the same river twice" Every day old cells die and are replaced by new ones. Does this mean I am not the same person that I was ten years ago. Have I died in the meantime? I have learnt a lot and in a sense I am not the person that I was ten years ago but it is still me. Surely uploading is the same idea? The fact is that we change each day we live. The only way we can stop changing is by dying (as far as we know). Try the following: 1. The disassembler takes me apart and reassembles me exactly in the exact same place immediately (same molecules same configuration) Is it me? 2. What if there is a half second delay before I am put back? 3. 2 minute delay? 4. no delay but moves me one micrometer left? 5. 1 meter left? 6. I go into a disassembler - It takes me apart and moves all my molecules next door where it reassembles me exactly (same molecules same configuration) Is it me? 7. I go into a disassembler - It takes me apart and reassembles me next door using some new molecules (same configuration - some different molecules) Is it me? (if not when is it not me - 10% different molecules, 20%,50%) 8. The disassembler just takes my blueprint leaves me where I am and makes an exact copy next door Are they me? Where am I? If I make an exact copy of me then it is by definition me. As soon as it starts to have different experiences then the two copies diverge and become two different people. This seems logical to me. The only reason it is hard to accept is that it challenges our notions of what it means to be me. We cannot point at a static object and say there I am (much as we want to). Is it an accident that we all thought that brain cells were there forever and new ones never grew or just an attempt to be able to point to a concrete object and say this is me (western scientists have long said I am my brain)? Now we find out that they are continuouslly changing so where am I? If I am just the process and not the hardware then our whole world view may have to be altered! Of course, I could be wrong but... Joseph. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=13700