X-Message-Number: 14683
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 11:05:05 -0400
From: Jeffrey Soreff <>
Subject: duplicates, #14671, #14673

Robert Ettinger wrote, in Message #14671

>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.

David Pizer wrote, in Message #14673

>1.      Assume an exact duplicate of you has just been created, and the
>instructor tells you that you have to pass a test before you or the
>duplicate can leave.

>2.      You and the duplicate are sitting across from each other in a room.
>There is a gun on the table.  The instructor tells you there is not enough
>room for you and the duplicate in the universe (or some other valid reason
>why only one of you can continue to exist).  One of you can have
>immortality and eternal happiness and one of you has to be shot, and it has
>to be done now.

>3.      The instructor says that you have to shoot either the duplicate or
>yourself, or else he will have to shoot both of you.  You are not allowed
>to shoot the instructor.

>Only if you are willing to shoot yourself do you show that you believe the
>duplicate is you.

Perhaps I'm wired a bit differently from you two, but Pizer's scenario
doesn't bother me at all.  As long as I was _sure_ that me and my duplicate
were identical, I'd be indifferent as to which of us lived and which died.

Ettinger's scenario feels more unpleasant to me, since it involves pain as
well as death, but I think I'd still find considerable solace in knowing that
other copies of me with my memories and preferences were going to survive.

                                     Best wishes,
                                     -Jeffrey Soreff

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