From: Emlyn (emlyn@one.net.au)
Date: Wed May 30 2001 - 19:46:47 MDT
> >In the pit thought experiment, Yevgeny the original is still in
> >the pit, every time. There is a consciousness "attached" (I use
> >that extraordinarily loosely) to Yevgeny, in the pit, which will
> >stay there forever.
>
> Doesn't this mean that if we ever could teleport (a la Star
> Trek, where you are disintegrated here and reassembled there)
> that you would refuse to travel by this means? If so, then
> you are quite wrong. As soon as it became sufficiently cheap
> and convenient, and as soon as all your friends started doing
> it, your reservations would crumble away at once.
>
I'm not sure what the latin is for proof-by-peer-pressure, but I'd be
surprised if it's regarded as a strong methodology. Anyway, there are a lot
of things on Star Trek that I wouldn't do... for a start, I'd install seat
belts. Call me old fashioned...
I need to ask a question at this point. There is a concept that identical
processes are the same process. I am not sure if this applies to objects...
If I make two structurally identical diamonds, are they the same diamond? I
am assuming a materialist would say they are not.
Instead, two physical processes (?) are the same if they are identical... is
that right? So, if I get two computers which are structurally identical, and
run identical programs on them, is some part of each of these a physical
process, and thus there is only one instead of two instances?
Confused,
Emlyn
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