From: Geoff Smith (geoffs@unixg.ubc.ca)
Date: Sat Sep 20 1997 - 16:42:00 MDT
On Sat, 20 Sep 1997 YakWaxx@aol.com wrote:
> John K. Clark wrote:
>
> > There is only one way to tell if you were successful in carrying
> > on this particular instance of you, if the future YakWaxx looks at the
> > present YakWaxx and says "I have his memories, I have his personality,
> > no thoughts or emotions were interrupted, I remember being him, yep, that
> was
> > me", then you have continued.
hmmm....methinks I am being a bit swayed by *some* of John Clark's
thoughts on self...
> Would two like beings share the same consciousness? After all they are the
> same person. Would I know my copies thoughts?
I think JK would agree with me on this point: Yes. If you are exact
copies, and continue to be so, you would have exactly the same thoughts.
> And if not, why not? What
> makes us different?
I would say location. (I think JK would disagree) To use a computer
programming analogy, I would say you are two identical instances of the
same object. You are linked by similarity but not location.(in the same
way that two identical instances of an object would be stored in different
locations in a computer's memory)
Here's a musical analogy(in case you're not computer literate) : the same
group of notes repeated in an opus are different only in location. From
this difference, there is the difference in context between the two groups
of notes. In human terms, this would be the difference between you and
your exact copy in the Andromeda galaxy. You are the same, but you have
different *potentials*. If you head out into space, and so does your
copy, you have the potential to encounter different stars.
geoff.
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