From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@rawbw.com)
Date: Sat Mar 08 2008 - 22:08:27 MST
Nick writes
>> If Tuesday takes place in a galaxy far, far away, and the initial
>> configuration of Tuesday arises by chance, say, (or from a
>> record of a previous execution), then there is only an infinitesimal
>> loss of consciousness: namely, the instant between Monday and
>> Tuesday.
>
> "Loss of consciousness" implies something the observer would
> notice. I'm confused.
Oh, sorry. I would like to claim that a loss of consciousness indeed
might pass unnoticed by the "subject" in this case. I should have
stated that.
For example, let's say that all of Monday except the last seven minutes
is a genuine computation on some genuine computer, and that in
executing Monday, the computer goes through N states per minute.
Let's further say that during the last seven minutes, each of the 7*N
states was not computed at all, but was loaded from completely
random states somebody produced from a random number
generator BUT JUST SO HAPPENED by sheer chance to be
identical to the 7*N states that would have been computed.
Then I claim
(1) during those 7 minutes the subject, i.e. the person, was
not conscious (or alive)
(2) later he would have absolutely no way of knowing that
those 7 minutes were in any way different, unless he
learned about it indirectly some time later.
For, to the person, it might just as well have been, I claim,
the same as if he stopped being conscious at 23:23 on Monday,
and then at 12:00:00 am on Tuesday morning had some memories
of those 7 minutes added, memories that would be identical to
the memories he would have obtained had he been calculated
the whole time.
Lee
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