X-Message-Number: 19513
From: "davepizer" <>
References: <>
Subject: Two Corbins in one place - yes?  Two Pizers in one place - no!
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 14:50:14 -0500

 "Lee Corbin" <> wrote:
> Subject: 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 statement might assume the conclusion in the premises where you say
"...you knew perfectly well there was a concurrent duplicate of you in
Phoenix...."  and  "...you knew of the duplicate in Flagstaff?"  One of the
jobs of this thought experiment is to try to conclude if a duplicate is you.
If we put that in the premises, (or any form of it), we can't really use it
in the conclusion.  Maybe I am not looking at this correctly?

Anyhow, I think I see what you are getting at.   I would look at it as two
similar persons (like very close twins), who each had their own experience
and then somehow the memories were inserted into one of the self-aware hunks
of neuronal tissue of one of the twins.  I think you could get that effect
by just inserting any old memories, (manipulating synaptic connections in
the cortex), and then having the part of the brain that "feels" the memories
access that connection.

I like to think of the brain as at least three separate parts, (probably a
lot more separate parts):     the part that runs the body without being
conscious of it,
    the part that is conscious and self aware of stuff,
    the part that houses the memories that normally we are not conscious of
until we access a         particular memory.

I still see consciousness and memories as two distinct parts of the brain.

Gingerly submitted,

David Pizer

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