From: Dickey, Michael F (michael_f_dickey@groton.pfizer.com)
Date: Fri Dec 14 2001 - 07:50:56 MST
From: Harvey Newstrom [mailto:mail@HarveyNewstrom.com]
Clint O'Dell wrote,
> As a joke, while the two beings with identical memories,
> etc. are sleeping the doctors decide to put you both in a human shuffling
> machine where when each person came out nobody knew who was who.
>
> Now both beings wake up. Which one is you?
"The question is imprecise. "You" is a pronoun that could refer to anybody.
Every reader of this message on this list is thinking about a different
person when they read that pronoun. Which of them is the real "you" that
was specified? There is no real answer because the question is imprecise."
Indeed, I would contend that the question and answer are pointless, simply
because one of them *must* be the original, and therefore have experienced
continuity of consciousness. Simply because we dont know which one it was
doesnt meant that it wasnt one of them.
Michael
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