From: Miriam English (miriam@werple.net.au)
Date: Sat Jul 07 2001 - 09:24:03 MDT
At 11:29 AM 06/07/2001 -0700, Reason wrote:
>If it's a separate backup, then it isn't you -- it's a copy of you. Back to
>suicide again.
>
> > I recommend consulting the archives (if they be working), this is a
> > recurring thread.
>
>Such as: http://www.lucifer.com/exi-lists/extropians.4Q00/3644.html
Thanks for the link to some of the relevant discussion in the archives. I
appreciate it. Wow! There sure is a lot of it. I still haven't read all of
it (already used up a lot of my day with it :)
An odd thing though... all the stuff I read kept making, what seemed to me,
a surprisingly simple mistake. You mention it again above: the idea that
the backup is a copy and is somehow distinct from a continuous "genuine
you". The mistake is in thinking that we are continuous. We aren't. We
exist in short, daily bursts. We lose consciousness each night -- more
often if we happen to drink to excess or have surgical operations or
receive traumatic blows to the head. There is no continuous me -- just the
illusion of it maintained by my memories of what I did and felt on the
preceding day.
If my biological self died in her sleep one night and next day my
downloaded self awoke, then in what way have I not continued? I would still
remember what went before in exactly the same way I do each morning of my
biological life.
Cheers,
- Miriam
---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=------
Q. What is the similarity between an elephant and a grape?
A. They are both purple... except for the elephant.
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http://werple.net.au/~miriam
http://members.optushome.com.au/miriame
Virtual Reality Association http://www.vr.org.au
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