From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Wed Jun 12 2002 - 07:35:49 MDT
Emlyn writes
> [Hal wrote]
> > A consciousness which formerly existed has been snuffed out. Before
> > pushing the button, there was someone having thoughts, and afterwards,
> > there is not.
>
> Except that it is identical to a timeshare arrangement, where it is suddenly
> not that sim's timeslice anymore.
I guess I understand the situation you're talking about. For
all any of us know, our experiences are interrupted when our
program is temporarily halted, and, to use current multi-tasking
analogy, we get swapped out to disk. We then resume when it's
once more the turn of our time slice to run.
So, yes, this is the same thing. Dying is like never getting
resumed. But like Hal says, it is less clear what to think
about my example because you *do* get resumed, only it happened
long ago in a galaxy far away.
> The only difference is that in a timeslice arrangement,
> there is an intention to bestow future runtime. This
> intention (or lack thereof) is not knowable to the sim,
But the person being so simulated could have exactly the
same assurances that you do that government agents aren't
going to assassinate you before you touch the keyboard
again, or that a meteorite isn't about to take you out.
We *hypothesize* certain features in the thought experiment,
and I think that it falls within the hypothesis that (using
your phrasing) that if you press the button (in both identical
runs, obviously) then you'll be resumed only in the first
run.
Lee
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