On Wed, 17 May 2000, Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
> There is not even any
> real debate about what such a process would do: everyone knows
> exactly what the result of such a copying process would likely do,
> how each thing would likely feel and behave; there simply aren't
> any interesting facts in controversy here.
Hell, yes, there are. If I'm facing a choice whether to be copied, should
I expect this self-awareness to continue in the original? Or continue in
either the original or the copy, with a 50% probability of each? If I'm
facing a choice whether to step into the (Star Trek) transporter, then the
first possibility above would mean that my self-awareness would cease 100%
of the time, and the second possibility would mean that my self-awareness
would cease 50% of the time. Neither of which sound very appealing to me.
The end of my self-awareness, my sense of ego, is what I call "death", nor
is this merely a semantic matter.
--J. Goard--
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