From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@ricochet.net)
Date: Sat Jun 02 2001 - 23:14:38 MDT
Damien Broderick writes
>Set the genes and memes to one side for the moment; our motives work at a
>more complex level than the de facto imperatives governing either (they are
>strictly mindless with no plans). One reason we keep our cake rather than
>eat it is that we remember past learning experiences, when we glutted today
>and felt hungry tomorrow, when that was experienced, in its turn, as today.
Yes, quite so, at least so far as I'm following you. But the story
about the genes explains why in fact "we keep our cake...", and accounts
for why past learning experiences are retained.
>My identical xox, sitting beside me, will serve *your* purposes equally
>well. But for me, I know that whatever he experiences from this moment
>forth, for good or ill, will not be felt by me except via imaginative
>empathy (which might be very strong indeed). I will not have his memories.
>I will *not have been he*, nor vice versa. So I retain the cake for the
>version of me that I will remember having been when I made the choice.
But this concept of "I" used here derived evolutionarily,
(of course) and so is hardly sacrosanct. If a sufficiently
good replacement comes along (a meme), then we possibly
*can* adopt it.
Moreover, you suggest that we sacrifice (at least selfishly)
only for the sake of memory supersets. But recall the midazolam
counter: if you've taken the drug half an hour ago, then you'll
remember nothing tomorrow about anything that you do the rest of
tonight. Now is that in any way like dying, or anything to be
worried about? It's weird---but one could get used to it.
Derek Parfit suggested leaving amusing messages under one's razor.
In a note earlier today, I listed eight advantages to subtly
altering our concept of "I" so that it includes duplicates.
(hmmm, feel a little guilty for not going into the list of
negatives about the new notion of "me", but you and others
have spoken well about them.)
I do confess that I think that there is an objective truth
to the matter. The objective truth, not surprisingly, obtains
when we align our concepts with fundamental laws, in this case
physics. In other words, we focus upon what is objectively
true about the universe, and ignore---to the greatest extent
possible for an evolutionarily derived organism---any opinion
on questions of fact coming only from our own subjectivities.
Lee Corbin
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