From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sat Nov 02 2002 - 12:44:42 MST
Jef writes regarding the thought experiment where I had asked
> > Yes, but do you also go as far as myself and Robin Hanson for
> > sure, and Rafal probably, in committing suicide so that a
> > frozen duplicate can be defrosted and get to keep ten million
> > dollars? I actually personally *anticipate* *being* that
> > duplicate as he deposits the money.
> >
> > And it's not easy; but I feel that the laws of physics leave
> > me no choice.
>
> Although it would feel weird, I'm sure I would choose that my
> duplicate walk out with the $10M. It makes logical sense every way I
> look at it, and I can clearly see that my unsettled feelings about it
> are only instinctual --- and I fully expect I would feel at ease
> after a few such experiences. (and the money wouldn't be bad either.)
You "can clearly see that your unsettled feelings about it
are only instinctual". Thanks for the phrase. That meme
will help me as I visualize myself in various thought-
experiments.
Maybe all one can do is grip the logic hard with both hands,
and have the intellectual knowledge that one will wake up
the next morning as usual. No matter how deeply they appear
to be embedded in our psychic makeup, souls do not exist.
As materialists, we realize the facts of the matter.
An animal part of me over here at this end of the room does
not experience everything that is happening to me. Since
Lee Corbin is a general pattern, or a class of patterns,
(take that, Google game), then just as I lived last month,
I shall live next month, provided only that somewhere in
the Solar System my pattern gets run time. It's an objective
event whether or not my process is running.
Likewise, the intelligent non-animal part of me realizes that
there by the grace of God goes me on the other side of the
room. Just because I'm not collecting memories *here* does
not mean that I'm not collecting memories. Just because I'm
not having experiences *here* does not mean that I'm not
having experiences. If I am an objective pattern, class of
patterns, really, then all the foregoing statements are true.
Lee
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