From: Jason Joel Thompson (jasonjthompson@home.com)
Date: Sun Dec 10 2000 - 16:45:16 MST
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Clark" <jonkc@worldnet.att.net>
> If you're on the Extropian list I assume you believe that mind is what the
brain
> does, if the brains are identical then what they're doing is identical and
so the mind
> is identical and the feeling of self is identical. That doesn't seem very
mystical to me.
It looks like this is not a safe assumption to make [regarding the make-up
of the Extropian list]
> Ok, before the switch one hydrogen atom is bound to oxygen and one is not,
> after the switch one hydrogen atom is bound to oxygen and one is not.
> No detectable change.
> But wait, now a new hydrogen atom is bound to oxygen and a new one is not!
> How can you tell?
> You can't.
Yes, but if those hydrogen atoms have the ability to experience reality,
then *they* can tell, and that's the whole point.
> >You still aren't explaining why you think that just putting
> > them in the same environment mystically links them so that they
> > become "one" with each other.
>
> I believe I have explained that, identical things do identical things.
> Nothing very mystical about that either.
It doesn't matter if they do identical things, they are still separate.
Your insistence on treating separate instances as the same thing seems
unnecessarily imprecise. You'll admit, I hope that there is a -difference-
between having one Jason and having two Jasons...? There's discretionary
value in recognizing the existence of two instances-- why ignore this
information?
> > What transfers the consciousness between one to the other?
>
> I've answered this several times also, Information. If you don't like my
> answer then criticize it, but don't keep asking the same question.
We don't like your answer.
Information is simply data. You have the data by which to re-create a
separate, very precise copy. You could build a thousand of those copies, or
just one, and each instance would be discrete from the original. The
experience of the original would be unchanged. Again, you aren't proposing
a means by which we *transfer* (MOVE!) or even change the original
consciousness, but rather a means by which we *copy* it. I don't understand
how you can hold the belief that there is an actual transference of
consciousness happening here without some sort of appeal to mystical forces.
If you secretly make a copy of me and activate it in Paris, how does that
change my subjective experience? Please describe in detail how information
transfers the consciousness from Me 1, to Me-In-Paris.
Of course, we're probably going to just keep going around and around like
this...
--
::jason.joel.thompson::
::founder::
www.wildghost.com
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