X-Message-Number: 14790
From: "Pat Clancy" <>
Date: Sun, 29 Oct 2000 00:15:37 -0700
Subject: Re: Why a Person is not a Thing

> The situation is somewhat the same as in The Ship of Theseus,
> and if a person is still functioning in our society after
> entire replacement, and seems in no way changed, would you
> really have the nerve to insist to the creature that in
> reality he or she no longer lived?
> 
> Lee Corbin


Well I've been lurking on this list for years, but since this is one of my 
favorite 
subjects I compelled to butt in...
I don't have a strong opinion on "pattern vs. thing", but here's a simple 
thought experiment to me supports "thing". Suppose you have a matter 
duplicator, ala the Transporter from Star Trek. It can instantly duplicate the 
complete structure of a person, down to the sub-atomic structure. (Of 
course, given quantum mechanics, you'd have to say that's impossible, but 

it's a thought experiment after all. Although maybe that's an important part of
the "answer".) In addition suppose it has a switch with 2 positions: 

"destructive" and "non-destructive". The "destructive" position is equivalent to
the Transporter - the original disappears as the copy is created. In that case 
you might feel OK about stepping into the machine, i.e. you'd feel like that's 
_you_ that appears at the destination. After all it is an _exact_ copy that 
appears when the original disappears, and one 
electron/proton/gluon/whatever is _exactly_ like another one.

However, when the swtich is flipped to "non-destructive", the original is not 
destroyed. Now you will clearly feel that the original is _you_, and the copy 

is not you. Of course the copy will feel that it is you also. But, to me, if I 
step 
into the machine, the original and real _me_ is and remains the one that 
stepped into the machine and not the other one.

Well I've never been able to come up with a good resolution to this, but my 
interim feeling is that I wouldn't get into the Transporter, because the non-
destructive option shows that _thing_ that is _me_ is not the same as the 
thing that is the copy of me.
However I strongly hope I'm wrong because I'd really like to think that 
uploading of consciousness and all that neat stuff is possible in theory.

Pat Clancy

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