X-Message-Number: 20951 Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 12:58:44 +0100 From: Henri Kluytmans <> Subject: Identity, copies Regarding the debate on identity I noticed the same mistakes and confusions as each time this "copy paradox" discussion pops up again. I copied some statements from old postings I made (years ago) : a) Concerning : Identities and persons? "Of course two different persons are not the same person. Using the "term" person here, only confuses everything. I suggest not to compare "persons" but only *identities*. I do claim that two frozen bodies with the exact identical chemical structure contain the same identity (but literally they are not the same person). But when the bodies will be animated then of course, the identities will immidiately start to diverge. People always seem to mix up the terms "person" and "identity" and also the terms "information" and "memory". They are not interchangable!! With "identity" I mean : the information describing a mind frozen in time. With "person" I mean : the mind when it is in a running state (i.e. an information process). " b) Concerning : Termination of a copy. "The reason why so many people seem to object to the termination of a copy (or original) of themselves is only of emotional origin. Humans have an instincitve emotional system build in, that objects against any action to end his/her existence. This system is of course very useful for beings in biological bodies that never can spawn any copies. However it is to be questioned if this instinctive emotional system is still that usefull when being an uploaded entity." Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20951