From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Tue Oct 15 2002 - 00:35:38 MDT
John writes
> > But you say that a few minutes ago is too long for your "taste",
> > and you refer to what you could "tolerate". I think that *all*
> > that needs adjusting is your attitude.
>
> Well sure, if I felt differently then, well, I'd feel differently and the
> universe would continue on without a glitch. As I said before there is no
> wrong answer to your thought experiment, It's a matter of taste.
Hmm. Well, *survival* may still be an objectively
true or false state of affairs (along a sliding scale
of course). I hold that it is. That is, if you are
dragged screaming and kicking into a teleporter-with-
delay, and we talk to you during the five minutes in
which your duplicate is alive and well in New Zealand,
then any assertion that you make that *you* aren't going
to live through this will, IMO, objectively turn out to
be false. No analytic examination of the solar system
will reveal John Clark dying.
> > Actually, one can do that today! Take the sleeping pill
> > midazolam at 11:00 PM and go to sleep at 12:00. You won't
> > remember anything between 11:30 and 12:00.
>
> Remind me not to take any midazolam, but the thoughts I lost are only part
> of the problem, the other part is the unpleasant thought that will not be
> lost, at least for a short time; I don't like the idea of having a last
> thought, of knowing that there will no continuation of my present thought
> process.
Gee, you must really hate going to sleep!
> I can no more give you a logical reason for my preference than I
> could tell you why life is better than death.
Yes, the burden of proof is on me, who claims that there is
a logical reason why no one dies in the delayed-teleporter
scenario.
> And you didn't answer my question, would you be comfortable
> if the copy was made a few months ago or a few years ago?
Clearly the longer the interval, the more uncomfortable I
become. Specifically, the last two months have been great,
but there is no doubt that the early summer Lee would pick
up and move onwards, and that I'd be him (am him, whatever).
In fact, any time in the last 30 years, I'd still survive
(say back to my mid-twenties or something), but I'd be
badly damaged of course. Beyond that, it's best to look
upon it as I'm a goner.
> I'd be most comfortable if it was a few milliseconds ago,
> then I'd have no problem with getting vaporized.
Yes. What about a 60-second delay teleporter where it's
with some sexual fantasy company? And, by the way, just
how much would I have to pay you to try midazolam?
Lee
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