From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Sat Jun 02 2001 - 21:13:12 MDT
At 06:45 AM 6/2/01 -0700, Lee Corbin wrote:
>Yes, this is the problem. We evolved to sacrifice for the
>self of tomorrow, but not for any creature sitting next to
>us. (Even if it's our child, we don't truly feel its pain.)
Note the Clue. Grab, it. Hold on to it.
>So how do we rationally determine whether something is us
>or not? Modern physics teaches us that other entities
>must differ at least in space or time. The self of tomorrow
>(for whom we sacrifice) physically resembles you, but so does
>the duplicate sitting next to you.
Set the genes and memes to one side for the moment; our motives work at a
more complex level than the de facto imperatives governing either (they are
strictly mindless with no plans). One reason we keep our cake rather than
eat it is that we remember past learning experiences, when we glutted today
and felt hungry tomorrow, when that was experienced, in its turn, as today.
My identical xox, sitting beside me, will serve *your* purposes equally
well. But for me, I know that whatever he experiences from this moment
forth, for good or ill, will not be felt by me except via imaginative
empathy (which might be very strong indeed). I will not have his memories.
I will *not have been he*, nor vice versa. So I retain the cake for the
version of me that I will remember having been when I made the choice.
Damien Broderick
[wringing my hands at the self-evidence of it all]
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