X-Message-Number: 14671
From: 
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 16:37:42 EDT
Subject: Corbin in handcuffs

Lee Corbin (#14662) writes, in part:

>All the things that are really important about me, and with which I 
identify, are >equally true of any close duplicate.

That is merely an opinion or assertion, not a fact. Important to whom? By 
what criterion or criteria? Also, "with which I identify" appears to be a 
statement about personal psychology, similar to "I identify with beer 
drinkers" or "I identify with dog lovers." Means nothing in this context.   

Lee notes that if there are problems with duplicates, there are also problems 
with predecessors and continuers. So what? If Argument A is weak, it doesn't 
help its case to note that Argument B is also weak. It's not a case of 
either-or.

In actual fact, hardly anyone is likely to FEEL that duplicates share his 
identity. Suppose the Lee who posts to Cryonet (Lee 1) could be led 
handcuffed into an auditorium full of duplicates (Lee 2, .........N) and told:

"You (instantiation 1, in handcuffs) willl now be tortured to death. But not 
to worry--all those other Lees--who will not be aware of your death by 
torture--will live normal lives." I doubt that Lee 1 would find much solace.

Of course, he might take the position that he "ought" to take solace, but is 
prevented by instinct or habit. Well, it is true that instinct and habit can 
produce bad results, but that doesn't address the question of affirmative 
proof that everything "important" about you is also present in near 
duplicates.

My present tentative opinion is that my predecessors and continuers do 
("ought to be considered to") share my identity in some degree, because of 
the physical overlap. If there is no physical overlap--if the duplicates are 
created elsewhere in spacetime--then the individuals, however similar, are 
separate. They will certainly have separate feelings and experiences, since 
feelings and experiences are physical events.  

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org

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