Re: Identity

From: Patrick Wilken (patrickw@cs.monash.edu.au)
Date: Sun Nov 22 1998 - 17:02:50 MST


At 9:00 AM 23-11-98, hidden wrote:
>
> If I appear in a room with an identical of me in a perfectly symmetrical
> room in a perfectly symmetrical situation, what can I do to label myself
>as >different? i.e. how long will I stay in parallel when are minds are
>no longer
>connected as one.

Given that its a thought experiment you are presumably able to keep the two
brains identical indefinitely. However in the real world I would have
thought chaotic factors would ensure that the two brains diverged very
rapidly. Even if you have two identical brains to begin with small external
differences would be enough to ensure divergence. I suspect that even small
gravitational differences between the two rooms would be enough. And of
course random quantum effects between the two brains would be different
which would also lead to divergence.

best, patrick

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patrick Wilken http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~patrickw/
Editor: PSYCHE: An International Journal of Research on Consciousness
Secretary: The Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/ http://www.phil.vt.edu/ASSC/



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