Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!lethe!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: mailrus!gatech!rbdc!kathy@uunet.uu.net (Kathy Vincent) Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: Re: Is uploading suicide ? Keywords: uploading Message-ID: Date: 10 Feb 91 04:34:37 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Red Barn Data Center Public Access Unix, Winston-Salem, NC. Lines: 26 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu hibbert@xanadu.com (Chris Hibbert) writes: >John Papiewski asked why he would consider an uploaded version of >himself or his friends to be the same person. >Now what you need to do is figure out why you won't trust a simulation >of your brain when you can check each piece of it against the real >thing as it's being put together. Remember the ship that was rebuilt >one plank at a time? If all the pieces work the same, why won't it >still be you? Reminds me of the Mathematical Bridge at Cambridge University in England. The story I heard was that it was originally built (a couple hundred years or so ago) without nails, held together and supported only by the pure principles of physics, meticulously applied. Then not all that long ago, some person(s) got the bright idea of taking it apart to see how it was assembled and then reconstructing it. They were unable to return the bridge to its original state successfully, even tho they, presumably, carefully observed the bridge's construction as they took it apart. The bridge is still there, but the principles of physics have some assistance from a few nails. I can think of several possible, relevant morals to the story.