On Mon, Aug 1, 2016 at 9:50 AM, Telmo Menezes <te...@telmomenezes.com>
wrote:


​> ​
> I am asking if you think that, for computationalism to be true, the
> ​ ​
> diaries of the duplicates must be equal even after the duplication
> ​ ​
> event.


​Only if the environments ​the 2 are in are also identical after the
duplication event.


>
​> ​
> If computationalism is true, then the ability to have a first person
> ​ ​
> experience of the world is duplicated,


​Yes, otherwise it wouldn't be a people duplicating machine.


> ​> ​
> but the contents of this
> ​ ​
> experience (after the time of the duplication) is not.
>

​Is this really that difficult to comprehend? ​If computationalism is true
then the machine will be able to make 2 copies that are identical to each
other in every way and will remain identical until the outside environment
or perhaps random quantum variations changes one but not the other.

​ ​


> ​> ​
> It is so
> ​ ​
> thorough that you will not even notice that anything happened, since
> ​ ​
> both you and your copy will always have the same diary and be
> ​ ​
> perfectly synchronous.
>

​Yes, until something changes one but not the other; until then while they
are still synchronised there ​may be 2 bodies but there is only one person
and only one consciousness.


> >
>> ​> ​
>>  you don't even feel like that fellow over there who looks just like you;
>> he's the original Telmo Menezes but you don't feel like him
>> ​ ​
>> because right now you're having a different experience from him.
>
>
> Agreed, so why the stuff about duplicating the entire diary, including
> ​ ​
> the future?
>

​You tell me, I don't know what you're talking about.​


>
>
>> ​> ​
>> You are
>> ​ ​
>> having the experience of being inside the house looking out, but the
>> ​ ​
>> original is having the experience of being outside the house looking in.
>> So
>> ​ ​
>> you don't feel like him because you're not him, although both you and the
>> ​ ​
>> original are
>> ​ T​
>> elmo Menezes
>> ​.​
>>
>
> Yes! So you agree and there is no reason to not proceed with Bruno's
> argument.
>

​Yes there is because Bruno asks "before the duplication what is the
probability that "YOU" will be inside the house looking out?". That is not
a question that is gibberish because Bruno isn't asking about what will
happen to Telmo Menezes, in a world with personal
pronoun duplicating machines Bruno wants to know about the one and only one
thing that will happen to *YOU*. And that's just silly.

>
> Of course the diary belongs to both! As I made clear it would belong to
>> one
>> ​ ​
>> of us but not the other ONLY if Bruno is right, only if no
>> physical machine can duplicate "a first person view from its first person
>> point of
>> ​ ​
>> view". But Bruno isn't right.
>
>
> ​> ​
> This is not what Bruno is saying at all. There is even no need to
> ​ ​
> argue this point, he wrote a paper about it. You can check it and you
> ​ ​
> will see that no such thing is said.
>

​Just a few days ago on July 29 Bruno said:​

"*Nothing can duplicate a first person view from its first person point of
view, with or without computationalism. It just does not make any sense. It
duplicates only the 1-view in the 3-1 view picture*."

​We all say silly things from time to time so if Bruno retracts that remark
I'll say no more about it, but until then I'm holding him to it,​

>
>
>> ​>​
>> So Bruno is talking nonsense.
>
>
> ​> ​
> What's the point of saying things like that? Be specific,


​See the quote above.​


>
​> ​
> I'm not sure what "duplicating subjective experience" would even mean.


​
There is
​an ​
experiment that can resolve this issue: You are a copy of Telmo Menezes
​ ​
(or maybe the original, nobody knows)
​ ​
made as precisely as Heisenberg's law allows and you are now facing the
​ ​
other Telmo Menezes
​ ​
in a symmetrical room, thus the two of you are receiving identical sensory
input and thus act identically. I now use a Star Trek brand transporter to
instantly exchange your position with the
​​
original
​ (or maybe the copy)​
, or if you prefer I leave your bodies alone and just exchange the two
brains. There is no way subjectively
​for ​
you or
​for the other ​
Telmo Menezes
​ to
notice that anything had happened, and objective outside observers would
not notice anything had happened either. There would not even be a way to
tell if the machine was actually working, I could even be lying about
having a transporter
​ and making a switch​
. Who knows who cares?

Of course if there were a unsymmetrical change in the environment or there
was a random quantum fluctuation that made the people different then things
would evolve, well, differently
​;​
but at the instant of duplication they would still be identical. So if
subjectively it makes no difference and objectively it makes no difference
and even the very universe itself isn't sure if a switch
​ ​
had actually been made or not then I make the very reasonable assumption
that it just makes no difference, and although there are two bodies and two
brains in that symmetrical room there is only one intelligence and only one
consciousness and only one point of view.

​And if that's not what happens, if one or both notice a difference when
the switch is made then ​"duplicating the subjective experience" has not
been achieved.


> ​> ​
> What seems clear to me is that entities capable of subjective
> ​ ​
> experience can be duplicated. Then, the content of their experience
> ​ ​
> might diverge after duplication.
>

​Yes. Until that divergence there is no Moscow man or Washington man, there
is still only the Helsinki man regardless of how many bodies are around.  ​


​> ​
> He's asking for your bet from your subjective experience after
> ​ ​
> stepping into the duplication machine.


​I would gladly make a bet about John Clark's subjective experience, but o
nly a fool would take the bet as stated above because after
stepping into the duplication machine
​ different people mean ​different things by the word "your" so there is no
way to ever know how the "experiment" turned out, which means it wasn't an
experiment at all it was just a mess.


> ​> ​
> It is not the pronouns muddle
> ​ ​
> the waters
> ​.
>

​Then call my bluff and just stop using that goddamn personal pronoun! That
would be the easiest way to prove me wrong, if I was wrong, which I'm not.


> ​> ​
> Having a honest
> ​ ​
> discussion using language does not require that both parties agree
>

​But an honest discussion does ​
require that both parties
​know the same language, it does require that both ​
agree
​ on what the individual words used in that ​discussion mean, *especially*
personal pronouns.


> >
>> ​> ​
>> It helps enormously, although inelegant when dealing with duplicating
>> ​ ​
>> machines it becomes far more difficult to speak gibberish if
>> personal pronouns are used sparingly.
>
>
> ​> ​
> For now duplication machines only exist in the thought experiment.
>

​Yes, although unlike such things as faster than light starships building a
people
 duplication machine
​ would require no breakthrough in science, it would only need better
technology. ​


> ​> ​
> There's really no need for you to say things like "John Clark is going
> ​ ​
> to eat a ham sandwich".


​There most certainly is if eating a ham sandwich is involved in a ​
thought experiment
​ with people duplicating machines in it! ​

>
>
>> ​>​
>> I believe John Clark can have 2 bodies so I believe it's possible for John
>> ​ ​
>> Clark to experience being two people at the same time.
>
>
> ​> ​
> And you believe this is what happens after a duplication?
>

​I don't see how John Clark can have 2 bodies before they are duplicated. ​

​Do you?​

>
>
>> ​>​
>> And I also believe
>> ​ ​
>> it's possible to later merge both memories into a single body so that
>> single
>> ​ ​
>> person remembers being both persons.
>> ​ ​
>> And I also believe that if you remember being that person then you are
>> that person.
>
>
> ​> ​
> I don't disagree with you,


​Good.​

​> ​
> but this is a bit more tricky. Mental
> ​ ​
> illness comes to mind.
>

I don't follow.
​ ​
Mental
​ ​
illness
​​
involves beliefs that are disconnected from reality, but in this case John
Clark actually did both things at the same time even though they were
thousands of miles apart , both were real and you vividly remember doing
 both. And yes I used the word "you" because although there had been two
they merged back together so there is only one again, so this time the word
"you" could be used without ambiguity. There is no disconnection
​ ​
from reality
​ ​
it's just that reality is odd if there are people duplicating machines. But
there is nothing wrong with odd.

 John K Clark

-- 
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 https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

Reply via email to