X-Message-Number: 19508
From: "Lee Corbin" <>
Subject: Being in Two Places at the Same Time
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 14:09:38 -0700

Dave Pizer, in his monthly column in "The Venturist" considers
the case where future scientists cannot repair your brain, but
instead build a duplicate (or upload you into a computer).  The
traditional issue, as he points out, is whether such a duplicate
is really you:

> One way to discuss this critical notion is to talk about
> being in more than one place at the same time.  If you
> agree that "you" can be in two places at once, then you
> probably will agree to the duplication.  If you disagree,
> you probably will hold out for the original brain repair,
> never mind the wait.

I presume that Dave would favor for himself "holding out",
and argues against the possibility of being in two places
at the same time.

What I'd like to ask Dave, and anyone else who dismisses the
possibility of being in two places at the same time, is this:

What if you remembered being in both Flagstaff and Phoenix on
a particular day two weeks ago?  That is, to pick a particular
day for example, you actually recall a day's work in Flagstaff
on July 1, and recall equally well different events, but which
also took place the same day in Phoenix?

Moreover, you recall that when you were in Flagstaff, you knew
perfectly well that there was a concurrent duplicate of you in
Phoenix, and you recall that in Phoenix that day you knew of
the duplicate in Flagstaff?   Sometime in the interim, your
memories had undergone a "merging" that so far as we know
might be possible in principle.

Would you still be so sure that you couldn't be in two
places at the same time?

This is the basis of an old essay of mine that I put online on
Extropians in 1996 or so, http://www.leecorbin.com/dupproof.html.

(The Venturist magazine is $8 US, $10 Canada/Mexico, $12 overseas,
and can be obtained online free at http://www.venturist.org.
Send all correspondence to: Editor, the Venturist, 7895 E.
Acoma Drive #110, Scottsdale, AZ 85260, email )

Lee Corbin

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