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From: pugh@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Who are you?
Message-ID: <3773@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Tue, 24-Sep-85 15:53:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.3773
Posted: Tue Sep 24 15:53:59 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 05:35:28 EDT
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From: "pugh jon%e.mfenet"@LLL-MFE.ARPA


It seems to me that some points of which we all should be aware have
been missed.  Assume the following:

We have a device capable of recording an object's entire atomic state and 
recreate it.  It doesn't matter whether the recording process is destructive
or not.  If it is we can build a new one immediately; if not we have only a 
duplicator.

The big question is:  Can LIFE be duplicated?  If it cannot, we only have
a replacement for cargo transportation, assuming a certain cost level.  Let's
assume it works on life though.  Creatures notice no ill effects and people
feel continuous through the process.

What we have here is a way of spawning processes.  We can essentially create
sentient life.  The recorded atomic state is our pattern, and
with not inconsiderable power and resources.  If the price of liberty
is eternal vigilance, we can thank Black for making our task simpler,
by betraying their existence to us, his opponents, that we may better
combat their beliefs.

What then is the best way to combat Black and his ilk?  Patient but
entertaining rebuttal.  Ridicule and sarcasm.  There have been some
excellent examples recently, such as constructing an even more absurd
conspiracy theory to show Black to be an agent of the KGB.  Don't feel
obligated to respond to a whole note: he doesn't do us any such courtesy.
instead, if you think of a stinging rebuttal to one point, share it with
us.  Point out that it is just one of a morass of lies, propaganda,
and fallacies.  His long postings with 80 zillion pseudo-facts are
a typical method of intimidation: ignore it and feel confident to
destroy just the ones you feel sure of.  (I am reminded of the tale of
the physicist who confessed to an archaeologist that while Velikovski's
physics was BS, he was quickly would they pick up on the fact they were not the original?

You could back yourself up every night, that way if you were killed you
would only miss the day on which you died.  Of course, *you* died, but you_1
could still live on.  I suspect they would demand that the president do this,
plus other irreplacables.  It would not stop the pres from being assasinated
but it would prevent him from being dead too long.

John F Kennedy could still be alive.  What would Jackie think of the new John?
After all she saw him die, but then the new one is essentially the man she woke
up with the day he died.

What if there are a bunch of you walking around?  How do you identify the 
original?  Or do you identify the spawns?  Does the original own them, or are 
they free?  Free I suppose, although if they were owned the owning process
could terminate them. And what if they spawned themselves.  Imagine an army
that all thought the same way.

Of course, this negates the prime reason that people live, so that they can 
die, hopefully having passed on their knowledge and genetic info to their
children and allowing them to continue.  It would be very selfish of a person
to keep replicating himself in an already over populated world.  And who would 
decide who got to live again?  Popular vote?  Elvis Lives?

The point I'm trying to make, I guess, is that cheating death may be fun, but 
it's not a really sensible long term solution to life.  After all, you still
have to die, each and every replication.  Why put yourself through that pain
again {, and again}?

Jon Pugh


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