X-Message-Number: 15132
From: 
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 10:51:57 EST
Subject: Garbo & ersatz memories

Mike Perry thinks that if Derek Parfit were gradually changed into Greta 
Garbo, Parfit would no longer exist, and before the change Parfit "should" 
have no direct personal interest in any joy or sorrow that Garbo might later 
experience. He thinks a successor must retain memories in order to be the 
"same" person or a true continuer--even though there could be radical 
changes. (Spatially separated systems, however, he thinks, must be very 
similar in order to be considered the "same" person.) 

However, I think his view discounts at least two considerations.

First, as many times noted, if the brain has a portion or aspect that is 
central in the sense that it creates or allows subjective experiences, then 
one could say that the "same" person endures so long as that subsystem 
endures--Parfit endures even if he becomes Garbo or a frog. In a less extreme 
case, an amnesiac is the "same" person. (Yes, if this central self is 
generic, we have additional problems.)

Second, in addition to the amnesiac case, we have the opposite--ersatz 
memories. All of us have had some kinds and degrees of ersatz memories and 
attitudes--for example, just by reading a novel, you temporarily, and to some 
degree, take on the persona of the protagonist. You "become" him (or her, 
even if you are a male reader!) to a certain extent. In extreme cases, crazy 
people "become" Napoleon or Jesus. With future technology, you might "become" 
almost anyone to almost any desired degree.

And yet again, I have no complete and final resolution for these questions, 
and I don't think anyone else does either. But life remains interesting, and 
sometimes more fun than oblivion.

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

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