From: Hal Finney (hal@rain.org)
Date: Sun Jul 12 1998 - 11:35:56 MDT
harv@gate.net (Harvey Newstrom) writes:
> Same old argument...
> [...]
> Would either individual agree to commit suicide based on the fact that
> the other would continue in its place? I say no. Others would say yes.
> I have a deeply personal desire to live and to continue on forever. I'm
> not sure why I feel this way. It may be based more on fear of death
> than anything else.
Suppose you are an upload. Someone proposes to pause your program for
a moment, then resume it. Will this kill you? (Note that such behavior
is an inherent property of timesharing computer systems, and that in fact
the discrete nature of computer simulations implies that there can be
said to be a "pause" between each clock tick.)
Someone proposes to pause your program and then resume it on another
machine. Will this kill you? (Note that such behavior is an inherent
property of load-balancing multi-processor systems.)
Suppose the computer has redundancy internally so that everything is
duplicated, two copies of each processor side by side, likewise for memory
elements, communication circuits, etc. You are run on such a computer.
Someone proposes to remove some element of the redundancy so that
there will no longer be this internal duplication. Will this kill you?
Suppose the two copies are run on two different computers. They are in
perfect synchrony and all signals on one are duplicated on another. This
is another way of providing redundancy. Someone proposes to turn off
one of the computers permanently. Will this kill you?
The last scenario seems essentially to represent the situation you describe
where you would view it as commiting suicide. I have tried to set up a
chain of situations where the first is clearly not a matter of dying,
and where there is a relatively small change between each step in the
chain. Presumably you will draw a line somewhere and say, this step does
not kill me but the next one will. This may help to clarify what the
elements are which seem important to you as part of your identity and
which you want to preserve in order to "stay alive".
Hal
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