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From: barry@ames.UUCP (Kenn Barry)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: LAST WORD on "souls" (Continuity of self)
Message-ID: <1113@ames.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Aug-85 17:29:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: ames.1113
Posted: Thu Aug 29 17:29:36 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 07:54:17 EDT
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Organization: NASA-Ames Research Center, Mtn. View, CA
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>> WRONG!  Look, I'm the last one to argue for Wingate's religious beliefs,
>> BUT:  it just ain't implied by a person's existence at time A, and later at
>> time B, that he must have existed during the time between.  (It happens
>> to be always true in the real world, but as a matter of physical law and
>> boundary conditions, not as a matter of logic.) [TOREK]
>
>True, Paul.  But what makes the person at time A the same person at time B?
>What relates the two "persons" such that they can be said to be the same
>person? [ROSEN]

	Interesting question! I have a little thought experiment which
might amuse anyone who's interested in the answer to it. Let's pretend
that someone has invented a "matter transmitter", a device whereby a
person can step in a transmitter in, say San Francisco, and step out
of a receiver in London a fraction of a second later, having been transmitted
from one to the other. However, it's not *really* a matter transmitter;
physically sending the atoms that make up your body half-way round the
world would not be economical. Instead, it simply sends all the *information*
required to duplicate your body at the other end, using materials closer
to hand. The result, nevertheless, is an exact duplicate down to the
molecular level, with both the "mind" and the body not detectably altered.
	Some obvious questions arise. Is the person who steps out of
the receiver in London the "same" person who stepped in the transmitter
in San Francisco? You can determine your gut-reaction to this question
by considering whether or not you'd be willing to travel this way, yourself.
If you think they are the same person, consider these slight alterations
in the situation. The device fails, briefly, while you are "in transit";
your body in SF has been decomposed, but the signal hasn't reached London.
Instead, an emergency backup system has stored the information that makes
up "you". Five minutes later, the system recovers, and you arrive in
London none the worse for wear. Still the same person?
	Now, the *really* hard one. Different system failure: you arrive
in London without mishap, but the transmitter fails to decompose the
"original" immediately. For a few seconds, there were two of you. Are
they *still* the same person? Or did somebody die there in San Francisco?
Better yet, *both* versions end up surviving indefinitely. How many people
do we have now, and which one is *you*?
	Extra credit question for those of you who would not step in
to the above device: suppose it really *did* transmit matter; sent your
very atoms to your destination, so that no possibility of duplication
existed. Would you step into this? Is the person who steps out the same
one who stepped in? In short, what are the boundary conditions for the
continuity of the self?
	This is not an answer to the "souls" question, obviously, but
I think it relates to it. Comments?

-  From the Crow's Nest  -                      Kenn Barry
                                                NASA-Ames Research Center
                                                Moffett Field, CA
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