X-Message-Number: 32871
Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2010 09:04:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: Luke Parrish <>
Subject: Re: uploading thought experiment


I get what you're saying, but it is wrong. Before I get duplicated, I would 
anticipate being either person with 50% probability, given that there will be 
exactly two individuals who would remember the anticipation. Afterward, I could 
only develop a fear of death by conscious experience of my impending demise, so 
the ethical question you are posing actually involves the divergent set of 
experiences.

Here's another thought experiment: 


1. Duplicating an inanimate object is likely to be easier than duplicating an 
animate one.


2. While in cryostasis, a person has been duplicated 99 times by an atomically 
precise method.


3. One of their copies awakens, unaware of whether they are the original but 
only that they have a 99% chance of being a copy.


4. After one hour, they must choose between destroying all 99 of the cryonics 
patients (including the original) or dying themselves.


5. Supposing they remember being the original, and are committed to its 
survival, should they sacrifice their current form and thus increase its odds 
from 1% to 99%?


6. If they are given reason to suspect that they are the original, would it 
moral for them to sacrifice their life in order to save the lives of the 99 
copies that have been created?

--- On Sun, 9/26/10, CryoNet <> wrote:

> Message #32869
> Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2010 13:13:37 -0700 (PDT)
> From: david pizer <>
> Subject: uploading thought experiment
> 
> Here is a thought experiment that should show you why
> uploading will not work as a survival option for you. 
> I explained this to Mike Perry about 25 years ago.
> 
> 1.  If you can upload a real person's mind into a
> computer, then you can also make a duplicate of that real
> person.
> 
> 2.  Imagine a duplicate of YOU has been made.
> 
> 3.  They bring the duplicate of YOU into the room
> across from you and you become convinced that the duplicate
> has your exact mind and is a duplicate of you in every way.
> 
> 4.  Then they point a gun at you and say "Since you
> are convinced the duplicate is an exact copy of you, do YOU
> mind if we kill you now and let the duplicate exist on?"
> 
> 5.  Even if you thought that the duplicate was an
> exact copy of you, you would not want them to shoot YOU.
> 
> Why?
> 
> Because somewhere in YOUR mind you would realize that the
> duplicate was not YOU.  Perhaps YOU cannot completely
> realize that the duplicate is not YOU until you are faced
> with the prospect of the duplicate continuing on and YOU
> becoming dead and ceasing to exist.  It is when one
> thinks of himself stopping to exist that they realize that a
> duplicate continuing on is not them surviving.
> 
> Until you are ready to say "no, I don't mind" (without any
> other conditions) when they ask if you mind if they kill you
> and just let the duplicate continue on, then you don't
> really believe that any duplicate is you.
> 

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