From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Nov 14 2002 - 12:07:57 MST
Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
> ### But how do you know which one is you?
I'm sorry but this question makes no sense to me. I cannot see any other
gts's so I don't need to decide which one is me.
If one of them should suddenly pop into my universe (perhaps that's what
you're asking) then I would see someone who looked like my identical
twin. His personality would be very similar to mine, or perhaps very
dissimilar to mine, but in either case he would not be me. If I pinched
him I would not feel pain. He would. If he committed a crime then he
would go to prison. I would not.
He might share many of my opinions and thoughts, but then so do a lot of
other people who are not me. My body and brain might even be partially a
product of interference between universes but this would not make me
less unique among the gts's in the multiverse.
>> Consider however that some of those other
>> Rafals are undoubtedly so despicable that you would
>> not even care to be in the same room with them, much
>> less share their identity. Do you really
>> think you are them?
> >
> ### If their thoughts are different to a sufficient degree,
> they are not me by my definition of self.
This is the same arbitrariness I see in Lee's argument about the
Senator. What is "a sufficient degree?" Who is to decide? Am I Hugh
Hefner if I think my thoughts are sufficiently similar to his? If my
opinion on the question of my equality to Hugh Hefner is not sufficient
to decide the matter then to whom do we look for a definitive answer?
And based on what criteria is that decision made? If enough people voted
that I were a turnip then would I be a turnip?
As I see it, it is much easier to acknowledge the common sense rational
view that similar but non-identical people cannot by any means be the
same person. It is a simple fact of logic that non-identical things are
never equal regardless of their degree of similarity.
-gts
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