On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 3:39 PM, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net> wrote:
> On 2/18/2013 10:49 PM, Jason Resch wrote: > > 6. Swapping places with someone: In 5 seconds, your mind and consciousness > will swap with that of some rich and famous person. Let's say Bill Gates. > I hope you are ready. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. The swap is complete. Bill Gates > is now in your body, with access to your memories and living as you were > just before you got to reading this sentence, while you are living as > a billionaire and enjoying Bills bank account. Of course, while you are > in his body you only have access to his memories. Not only does his wife > not notice the switch, but you don't even notice it. You only have access > to Bill's memories now so you do not realize anything is awry. Don't > worry, everything will be set back how it was, in 3. 2. 1. Welcome back. > How was it? Of course, you don't remember. Fortunately, Bill was nice > enough to read the last few sentences for you and now they have been placed > into your memory. This shows it is meaningless to say "I wish I could live > as X", or "experience a day in Y's shoes". For all you know, you already > are, have, and will. > > > This, if true, only shows that "you" and "Bill Gates" don't exist apart > from your bodies and memories, so that it is nonsense to talk of exchanging > bodies and memories. > We agree it is nonsense. > For it to make sense there would have to be a "you" soul and a "Bill > Gates" soul that switched. > Okay, if no soul involved, then by what means can we talk of you at T1 and you at T2, when the two are different in terms of memories and material? There is a problem with any theories of personal identity two individuals at two different times. Inevitably it comes down to some arbitrary measure of similarity. There are two alternatives, no-self theories of personal identity, in which you are nothing but a single observer moment, and universalism, which identifies you with every conscious entity. Universalism is a simpler theory that explains more, in that it can answer why you are experiencing the moment you are in now vs. none at all or some other observer moment. No-self theories, taken seriously, seem incompatible with the scientific method, as if you are trapped in a single OM forever, you cannot perform any experiments, or test predictions. Jason -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
