From: Smigrodzki, Rafal (SmigrodzkiR@MSX.UPMC.EDU)
Date: Mon Jun 04 2001 - 13:29:45 MDT
ACC is anterior cingulate cortex
Lee Corbin wrote:
You enter a room and find a block of ice encasing a
frozen duplicate of you that was made a few minutes
ago. On the block of ice sits a briefcase with ten
million dollars in it. You have two choices:
(A) allow your frozen duplicate to be disintegrated
along with the briefcase
(B) agree to be instead disintegrated yourself, so
that your duplicate awakes and deposits the money
### Yes I would take B! Except that I would prefer a different scenario - "
I am persecuted by the minions of the evil World Government. I manage to get
access to the secret man-xerox and make one frozen copy. Since I do it, I am
sure it's my copy, not one of Eugene's tricks. I hide plans to the world
control machine with my copy and go out to face the oppressors. The body
gets quickly killed. The copy is automatically activated, I use the control
machine to end the world goverment's dominion, and live happily ever after".
This is more palatable because I now that it is not a trick, somebody
setting me up with a body that looks like me and a briefcase of (maybe fake)
money. I also don't just get zapped but actively seek my destiny, taking
some of the bad guys with me.
But yes, I do take B.
Do you think that the concept of "I" really has integrity?
By that I mean, given that if in the future we are able to
manipulate all these various functional modules (or their
uploaded equivalents), will (or should) a concept like "I"
continue to survive? Or is it sort of a delusion?
### No, it's not a delusion - it works! Any concept that keeps millions of
complicated self-programming computers humming along for years cannot be a
delusion. Yet, on the other hand, with changing conditions this concept will
have to evolve (in a small part thanks to the Extropian discussions, I
hope).
The answer has grave implications for "Progress: What does
it mean to **you**?".
### Progress means things happen the way I want them to happen. In
particular, I want nice people to live long happy lives, get to know stuff,
have some fun, plant trees, find out what is on the other side of the
Universe, and I don't want bad people to mess with the nice ones.
Now, seriously, progress is too complex an idea to write up in a short
email. Maybe whan I am on call again.
Rafal Smigrodzki MD-PhD
Dept Neurology University of Pittsburgh
smigrodzkir@msx.upmc.edu
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