From: Heartland (mindinstance@gmail.com)
Date: Thu Mar 13 2008 - 07:08:30 MDT
>> Lee:
>>> You would *not* say to yourself, "Oh, I guess I'm not Slawek
>>> anymore. I must be someone else." No. You would say
>>> "WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO ME? What
>>> just *happened*? AND WHAT AM I, SLAWEK, doing
>>> here? and why is everything blurry when I look across the
>>> room? Whose body is this? It's not *mine*!"
>>
>>> I think that it's a *fact* that you would speak and think just like
>>> that. You would then, surely, be forced to admit that you went
>>> with your memories when they were transferred to California.
>>
>> Yes, this person in California would definitely "feel like Slawek",
>> but why should "someone who feels like X" imply "someone is X"?
Lee:
> Because he accumulates additional experience just as the original
> Slawek did.
Sorry Lee, but this is not the *kind* of answer I'm looking for. All the answers
I've received so far from you and other people already assume that memories are
important whereas the original question is still why are memories important in the
first place, and not just to survival, but why are they so important, period. Thank
you, though, for trying and I encourage you to keep trying. I must confess I knew
full well how difficult it must be to answer this question as it forces a person to
become aware of this core assumption and to examine its validity.
Lee:
> Consider: after you've been an hour in California
> getting used to Lee's body and Lee's circumstances, then we
> transfer your memories to Stuart's body in Vienna for that period
> of time. (Yes... please! I know I'm assuming that "you" are being
> transferred, but hear me out.)
>
> When it's all over, and you're back in Slawek's own house in
> the old familiar body, you would have no doubt that you had
> traveled to California and then to Vienna.
>
> Now if you want to say, "Oh, well, that wasn't me in California,
> it was someone else", then answer me this: if you weren't in
> California during that hour, where were you while all this happened?
Oh, I can answer this in detail, but let me just say that I'm not interested in
debating whether you or I am right about this. This would not be productive at this
stage. We won't be ready to do that until you can answer why memories are
important. Right now, and just for fun only, I can give you an outline of what that
answer would look like, but hope you leave it alone, at least for now. :)
>From my perspective, (what I define as) "I" (different from what you mean by "I")
never went anywhere. I never left my house even though I remember now having an
experience of being in California and Vienna in other bodies. I only remember this
but have not experienced being in California or Vienna. What I actually
experienced was a replacement of Slawek-type memories with Lee-type memories and
then replacement of Lee-type memories with updated Slawek-type memories that were
pretty cool. You see, my "I" is not attached to any type of personal memories.
While personal memories are fun and precious, they do not define what I am (notice
"what" instead of "who") so they are expendable. I would compare Slawek-type
memories that currently occupy my brain to a role I'm currently acting out or to a
bunch of clothes I'm used to wearing. I can act out different roles in different
clothes without affecting my existence in any way.
Slawek
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