On 7/19/2016 5:18 AM, Bruce Kellett wrote:
On 19/07/2016 9:47 pm, spudboy100 via Everything List wrote:
The who argument here, is one of fission, plus, identity. But what of
fusion. Let us say Biff, using magical teleportation technology,
clones himself into 2 identical guys called Biff and Biff zips off to
Moscow, Boff decides to shop for fishing equipment, in Helsinki.
After a few hours seeing the sights, buying some goods, Biff, bought
a case of Stoly, Boff, some fishing gear, both zap back to
"Copenhagen," their site of origin. Once they arrive, they discuss
their trips with each other and agree to re-merge. The transporter is
used, and Boff is absorbed back into Biff. Biff emerges from the
transporter, memories of both places intact, and anticipating a
weekend of fishing and Stoly. This would be fission, then fusion or
re-fusion.
Parfit has considered such a case:
Personal Identity
Suppose that the bridge between my hemispheres is brought under my
voluntary control. This would enable me to disconnect my hemispheres
as easily as if I were blinking. By doing this I would divide my mind.
And we can suppose that when my mind is divided I can, in each half,
bring about reunion.
This ability would have obvious uses. To give an example: I am near
the end of a maths exam, and see two ways of tackling the last
problem. I decide to divide my mind, to work, with each half, at one
of two calculations, and then to reunite my mind and write a fair copy
of the best result.
What shall I experience?
............
Personal Identity
My work is now over. I am about to reunite my mind. What should I, in
each stream, expect? Simply that I shall suddenly seem to remember
just having thought out two calculations, in thinking out each of
which I was not aware of thinking out the other. This, I submit, we
can imagine. And if my mind was divided, these memories are correct.
In describing this episode, I assumed that there were two series of
thoughts, and that they were both mine. If my two hands visibly wrote
out two calculations, and if I claimed to remember two corresponding
series of thoughts, this is surely what we should want to say.
If it is, then a person's mental history need not be like a canal,
with only one channel. It could be like a river, with islands, and
with separate streams.
Parfit appears to be undecided as to what to make of this, but it
might be of some interest to consider further.
--- (Derek Parfit, /The Philosophical Review/, Vol. 80 (1971) pp. 3-27)
Bruce
That's pretty much the multiple drafts model of Daniel Dennett. He
speculates that the brain consists of a lot modules that evolved to
serve different purposes (sight, kinesthetics, language,...) and they
"compete" in deciding actions, including what gets encoded in the
internal narrative we experience as conscious thoughts.
Brent
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