Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: mvp@hsv3.uucp (Mike Van Pelt) Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: Re: Is uploading suicide ? Message-ID: Date: 21 Jan 91 17:53:04 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Video 7 + G2 = Headland Technology Lines: 38 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu In resonse to article the moderator writes: >[This assumes you don't believe that the essence of a mind is the > information. We don't think of a book as "lost" if there are > plenty of copies left. I wish someone could specify just what > is about a person that is lost if the information exists to > create a copy that is as close to the original as the same > physical body would have been the next day. --JoSH] OK, a gedanken experiment. Dr. Zarkov makes a copy of you. Now, he points a gun at your [original] head. What is your reaction? 1) No problem. Let him shoot, there's a backup. 2) Both of you charge him at once; one of you can get him before he can shoot you both. 2b) Are you *sure* you and your copy will make this decision simultaneously? 3) Does it make a difference if the gun is pointed at you [copy]? 4) Why? -- Have you ever noticed that the New Agers Mike Van Pelt were never peasants in their "past lives"? Headland Technology Always dashing princes and daring knights -- (was: Video Seven) What balderdash! -- Eric Green quoting Doonsbury ...ames!vsi1!v7fs1!mvp [(1) Obviously not. I wouldn't want someone to kill a copy of me, or my brother, or my friend. (2) probably. One would expect a certain esprit de corps among copies of a single individual. Indeed, I'd expect the whichever instantiation the gun was not pointed at to rush him. As long as the copying process is of a high-enough fidelity, I can't see distinguishing between the original and the copy--both have equal legitimacy as continuations of the original identity. --JoSH]