From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Oct 15 2002 - 10:05:33 MDT
Lee Corbin wrote:
> gts writes
>> In our example there are two instantiations of me[past]!
>> One of them is a subset of me in the frozen state and one
>> is a subset of me in the active state in which I'm pondering
>> the vaporization questions. I can
>> eliminate either instantiation of me[past] without
>> eliminating me[past] or me[now]. Me[past] dies only if the
>> frozen person and I both die. Me[now] dies only if I die.
>
> Your use of "subset" is telling, IMO.
Can you think of a better term? My frozen copy from the past contains
imprints of memories that are a subset of my own memories. Vaporizing
his copy of those memories does not destroy my copy of them.
> When you forget something,
> Gordon, do you become a subset of yourself? Does you[now] die?
This line of reasoning also leads to the absurd conclusion that two
entirely different people are actually the same personality. For example
you could argue that your lack of any memory of being me is equivalent
to having "forgotten" all memories of being me, and that your
personality is thus identical to mine in the same way that my past
copy's is identical to mine. But obviously you are not me. Your argument
fails by reductio ad absurdum.
> Note that cryonicists often talk about how desirable it would
> be to have a backup. Suppose that in some SF scenario it is
> possible for cryonicists to get a scan made every two weeks.
> Then, if a terrible accident occurred, they could still be
> restored from backups, sans their most recent memories. I
> regard this as survival. Do you?
I would regard it as survival of someone very similar to me, but not me.
I am the person who died -- not the person who was frozen two weeks ago
and later restored.
To illustrate, I may have experienced some major changes in my
personality after my last backup. Perhaps as a result of some traumatic
experience in the last week before I died, I experienced a religious
conversion and decided with firm resolve to commit my life to the god
Thor. Would my non-religious backup be a true copy of me, the devoted
servant of Thor? Hardly. We would be two entirely different people with
different beliefs, values, hopes and dreams.
-gts
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