Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: Jim_Day.XSIS@xerox.com Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: Re: Is uploading suicide? Message-ID: Date: 12 Jan 91 03:11:12 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 12 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu Just what constitutes an individual has been debated throughout the course of human history by scientists, philosophers, and theologians. So far, there seems to be very little agreement on this issue. But if uploading can be accomplished nondestructively, then I would imagine that the original version will insist that he or she is the one and only real person, no matter how eloquently the silicon copy may argue the point. [The silicon copy might argue instead that the concept of "one and only real person" was semantically null, and offer him/herself as proof. I can't see any logical reason there has to be a "one and only". --JoSH ps: just proving your point that there's little agreement on the issue!]