X-Message-Number: 22288 From: "Jappie Hoekstra" <> Subject: CryoNet #22280 - #22284 Date: Saturday, 02 Aug 2003 16:33:00 +100 Hey, [*] 02 Aug 03 09:00, quoting Mike Perry (#22284): C> My natural reaction, if actually confronted with a human-seeming robot, C> would be to grant it the benefit of doubt instead. Unless I was aware C> of a compelling argument that it could not be a person, I would accept C> it as one. By implication, then, I would be affirming a conviction that C> emotions are indeed computational in nature (since quantum mechanics, C> the substrate level of the simulation, is itself simulable C> computationally). This I would take as a working hypothesis, not a C> dogma, but something I would not reject unless forced by the evidence. Which would be a very natural approach. Let's consider teleportation as an example of something that most would consider possible in the future. This technique would probably rely on the disassembly and transportation on atom-level of a person. Let's say these atoms would travel through a long tube specifically crafted for that purpose, transporting atoms. A person is disassembled on one end and identically reassembled at the other. Who would in reality question whether this person is not the same person anymore? The original person was completely moved, so probably noone would start complaining this person is not the original. Now let's say the technique was changed somewhat, so that atoms aren't transported through atom-tubes, but 100% correct structural information about these atoms is sent through copper phonelines and new atoms are built from this information on the endpoint. Let's say the original atoms are destroyed in the process. So the end-result is completely the same as in the previous example - The person was "transferred", the body that came out of this process is identical to the one transferred in the previous situation. In this situation you would get many people complaining this cannot be the same person. It's a clone - all particles have been copied/refabricated. Yet still the majority would say this is *the* actual person. Now let's consider technique #3 in which the original atoms are not destroyed in the process .. So the person is simply copied. Yet the body and mind at the endpoint are the exact same as the one in the previous situation.. In that respect nothing changed. Still *noone* would accept that new person as the actual person. So for the world in general, it will depend on the technique used whether teleportation ever becomes a success. For the sake of acceptance, it would be best if the technique was flawed, so that the original was destroyed. If there would be proof that the transferred person actually is someone else after the transfer, then teleportation can never be achieved through nanotechnology. I consider it likely that teleportation will one day be achieved through nanotechnology and kept in use for a while, simply because it allows us to travel at the speed of light. In that case the entire world is subject to becoming different people just from travelling.. :) But frankly, you're also a different person when getting off the bus, when you reference it to the point where you stepped on. -- Jappie Hoekstra Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=22288