X-Message-Number: 18021 Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2001 07:49:07 -0500 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: yet more on identity Hi again! For Dave Pizer, it seems to me that if we can assume that we know enough about how we're (or just our brains) are put together, then it should make no difference just what method is used. I do not want to obscure that assumption, though I would say myself that (from all the reading I've done about how brains work) it seems QUITE unlikely that some totally presently unknown fact about brain construction would make that assumption false. Furthermore, if we assume that it is false, then we don't have duplicate people at all (supposing, contrary to your implication, that the damaged brain could be looked through in the necessary detail WITHOUT destroying it). Instead we have 2 different people put together differently. That on awakening they each called themselves by the same name hardly makes them copies of one another... and if that is a USEFUL definition of identity, please tell me why it is useful. Because I brought up the issue of mathematics, I will raise it again here. Yes, we have great freedom as individuals in terms of what we consider as identical and what we consider different. However in terms of making our definition of identity interesting to others there are strong limits of what we can say. We can define identity as we wish, but we must also keep an eye out to whether or not others will think our definition is worth thinking about. Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18021