From: John K Clark (johnkc@well.com)
Date: Thu Nov 13 1997 - 12:13:47 MST
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
On Thu, 13 Nov 1997 Harvey Newstrom <harv@gate.net> Wrote:
>I already have a genetic copy. He is not a clone, but a twin. If
>someone wanted to shoot me in the head, I would violently oppose
>this plan.
Anyone would oppose that plan because a genetic copy is not nearly good
enough, even an exact copy made an hour ago would not do. It's a matter of
taste but personally I wouldn't be happy unless the copy was made right now.
How long is now? For human beings about a second or two.
>The continued existance of my "copy" does not make me feel
>comfortable with my death.
Of course not, but the point is you wouldn't be dead, you wouldn't even know
something out of the ordinary had happened.
>Even if you recorded my exact brain state, and reset his brain to
>that exact configuration, I would still not want to die.
How do you know that this did not already happen yesterday at 9:32am ?
How do you know it doesn't happen a thousand times a second?
What possible difference would it make to your life if it did?
>I just still desire to continue experiencing life.
Absolutely, but "you" are not a few hundred pounds of protoplasm, you are the
way matter reacts when it is organized in a specific complex way. You are not
a noun, you are an adjective.
>Does anyone know what is different between my understanding and that
>of those who would be willing to die if there was a copy made of
>them?
I don't want to die under any circumstances, but to me dying means having a
last thought, a last experience, if I keep having them then I'm not dead.
I don't care what happens to the carbon atoms in my body, nothing special
about them, they're all identical and get recycled all the time anyway.
John K Clark johnkc@well.com
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.i
iQCzAgUBNGtX/n03wfSpid95AQG8NwTw3nj07KsYZyKU+QYc2AUBhQFk8oxDto7/
GaKWwenEtaabsOPKrMVe4yKhXl5uG9uils++YBwzbqxbxLFXik5trQg7rGWkZ8A2
RT26nnD/mE4i74Gh7EmHZ32T+Uch7eh6kgsHa3L0p92nRUYpboIhfHkGvN9yQT81
HmRvB8fpr6D18WBF3BRsnkE20CIsMZsR/ZGnBlwDcNXKdBN7XHc=
=WmY/
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:45:07 MST