From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sun Nov 17 2002 - 10:43:44 MST
gts writes
> [Lee wrote]
> > gts wrote
> >>.. imagine yourself as the single Subject-0 who
> >> enters the chamber. You will experience yourself
> >> to leave by one exit, not two, and your exit will
> >> be distinct (labeled either "A" or "B"). Nothing
> >> remarkable about that to you, I hope.
> >
> > I agree.
>
> No, you do not agree, because you went on to say:
>
> > I will leave by door B, but I will also leave by
> > door A.
>
> Make up your mind, please. First you agree that you
> will leave by one door only, then you write that you
> will leave by both doors.
You only quoted two words of my paragraph, not referring
to my whole explanation:
>> I agree. Indeed, just as you say, "I will experience myself to
>> leave by one exit", it's just that this physical sequence of
>> events will occur in two places, not one. I will leave by
>> door B, but I will also leave by door A.
Remember that the proof that a ham sandwich is better than
the whole universe ("Nothing is better than the whole universe,
and a ham sandwich is better than nothing") is just a word game.
Please consider how IN ONE SENSE "I am leaving through just
one door" is true, while in ANOTHER SENSE "I am leaving by
both doors" is true. If you don't want to consider the
possibility that these meanings are difficult and cannot be
reduced to simple syllogisms, then you should go get a ham
sandwich right away ;-)
THE FIRST SENSE corresponds to what Rafal calls one's "simple-
self", that is, the whole gestalt given to us early on by
evolution to enable animals to use their surfaces to separate
self from other.
THE SECOND SENSE, as Jef explains, is "[We can] broaden our
conception of identity beyond the one evolution gave us, to
accept that we should consider our duplicates are in some
sense ourselves."
All that is being asserted is that "I am leaving by only
one door" is false in the second sense, though true in the
first sense.
Lee
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