I'm going to let the zombie thread die. - Tom
--- Stathis Papaioannou <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 29/06/07, Tom McCabe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > But when you talk about "yourself", you mean the > > "yourself" of the copy, not the "yourself" of the > > original person. While all the copied selves can > only > > exist in one body, the original self can exist in > more > > than one body. You can pull this off without > violating > > causality because once the original self has been > > copied, you can't refer to it experiencing > anything as > > there's no longer an "it" to refer to. So while > the > > original self exists in more than one body, it > doesn't > > simultaneously experience multiple lives, because > it > > doesn't experience anything at all, because it's > no > > longer a coherent entity. Confused yet? > > Ordinary life involves 1:1 copying. The half-life of > proteins in mouse > brain tissue ranges from hours to minutes, > including structural > proteins such as those in the myelin sheath. It's > easy enough to > imagine a situation where human metabolism is sped > up to the point > where you go to sleep with one brain and wake up > with another brain - > at least, a person wakes up in your bed who believes > he is you and has > your memories etc. A believer in a mystical theory > of personal > identity might say that the original person has died > and been replaced > by a copy, or he might say that he is still the same > person because > the consciousness has been retained in the cranium > (or wherever it > resides) whereas dastardly destructive duplication > experiments destroy > the old consciousness and create a new one which > thinks it's the > original person but isn't really. > > The only really consistent and unambiguous way to > look at these > questions is to acknowledge that there is no > conscious entity extended > through time in any absolute sense, but simply a > series of moments of > conscious experience (observer-moments, in the > terminology I believe > originated by Nick Bostrom) which associate in a > particular way due to > their information content. The important point is > that consciousness > does not "flow" from one observer-moment to the > next, but only seems > to do so because of our linear existence from birth > to death, > responsible for our psychology and for the > "paradoxes" of personal > identity when we try to make sense of the various > transhuman > situations. > > > > -- > Stathis Papaioannou > > ----- > This list is sponsored by AGIRI: > http://www.agiri.org/email > To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: > http://v2.listbox.com/member/?&; > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Get the Yahoo! toolbar and be alerted to new email wherever you're surfing. http://new.toolbar.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/index.php ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=4007604&user_secret=7d7fb4d8
