X-Message-Number: 20898
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 08:14:26 -0800 (PST)
From: Christine Gaspar <>
Subject: re: perfect copies

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Your answer is well put, but it did not exactly answer my questions. I don't 
suppose this can easily be answered at this time, as we do not yet know the 
fundamental cause or root of conciousness. I have thought about the same 
conclusions before, as you have presented, but to my mind, those answers are 
unsatisfactory.
Ben Best has an essay on his web site that discusses the same problem, BTW.

I still don't care who goes home thinking she is me (be it Christine A or 
Christine B). I can only be one of them, and upon waking, only one of us will be
right. It is similar to the teleportation devices that are still mostly in the 
realms of science fiction. If a machine can record every position of every atom 
in your body, then destroy you, converting you into a computer file,  or into 
energy, then rebuild you at a distant location, then it really, fundamentally 
doesn't matter how convincing the copy is to others or to the new Christine. The
fact remains unchanged, that the Christine that is the continuity of ME is 
destroyed. I suppose that using the concept of a soul is a good literary device 
for such an argument. The soul of Christine resides here, where I am now. If 
there is a copy of Christine somewhere in the universe at this moment, it 
certainly is no benefit to me. My priority of extending MY life indefinitely 
remains.
Christine (A)

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