SP: 'Getting back to the original question about teleportation
experiments, are you saying that it would be impossible, or just
technically very difficult to preserve personal identity whilst
undergoing such a process? As Brent pointed out, technical difficulty is
not an issue in thought experiments. ,
MP: I have answered this, in responding to Brent. In summary I say: if
it is just A [any old] rendition of a human you want, then given that
thought experiments allow that all practical challenges can be overcome,
the answer is Yes! On the other hand if the strict requirement of an
exact copy of a particular person is required to be output then it
becomes a question of whether or not truly infinite computing power is
required to calculate the changes occurring within the original at scan
time. If it is then the answer is NO, because infinity is infinity.
I think Derek Parfit's copier [/Reasons and Persons/ Ch 10] was
'usually' producing complete and accurate copies, because one of his
scenarios addresses what would happen if there was a fault in the
transmission.
Regards
Mark Peaty CDES
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.arach.net.au/~mpeaty/
Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
Mark Peaty writes:
SP: 'So given months or years, you really are like a car in which
every single component has been replaced, the only remaining property
of the original car being the design'
MP: Yes, indeed. For the word design here, I prefer to use
'structure', with the proviso that the structure/s we are interested
in is/are not just static but some are dynamic. I like to use the
word 'construct' [noun] to refer to these things. The kinds of
changes occurring may be summarised in a very general sense as of
three types:
1/ apparent non-change, which might be really invariant down to the
smallest level of measurement, but might also be cases of just
oscillation about some average length or volume [say] with no
significant topological, charge or mass changes,
2/ cyclical changes in which topology, charge, charge
distributions, or mass, whatever, vary in some significant repeating
way, and
3/ non-repeating changes which might be manifestations of growth
and development, creation of memories, damage from disease or just
entropy-the passage of time.
Getting back to the original question about teleportation experiments,
are you saying that it would be impossible, or just technically very
difficult to preserve personal identity whilst undergoing such a
process? As Brent pointed out, technical difficulty is not an issue in
thought experiments.
Stathis Papaioannou
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