From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Fri Sep 27 2002 - 09:48:26 MDT
gts wrote:
>
>> You have managed for countless messages now to engage
>> me in a dispute that no two intelligent people should
>> ever find themselves, namely that of whether basic
>> human drives such as the drive to breathe are a part
>> of the person who breathes.
>
### This might imply one of us, or neither one, is intelligent - as it is, I
do not perceive the drive to breathe as a part of myself. This drive is
merely a subroutine in the lower reaches of the neural net that serves to
maintain the body I am currently using. I would not perceive parting with
this body (and the associated drive to breathe) as a loss, as long as I (a
self-maintaining information-processing system) would keep the essential
elements of that constitute me, e.g. memories, and certain high-level
heuristics (mostly ethical and epistemological opinions). Since I don't mind
dispensing with my inspiratory drive, it is not a part of my person. QED.
Rafal
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