From: Stathis Papaioannou (stathisp@gmail.com)
Date: Wed Mar 04 2009 - 03:28:42 MST
2009/3/4 <rick.smith@ntlworld.com>:
> Please excuse me if this has been done to death,
Actually, it has been repeatedly discussed on this and many other
lists, and although some never tire of this important topic others get
annoyed and might even demand the thread be terminated.
> but I think focusing on the question of whether there is a thing called a consciousness clouds the issue.
>
> I think the question is about a continuity of experience.
>
> To the rest of the world there's no difference, but how could somebody make me believe that my experience would not just cease as I am physically destroyed?
Your experience would cease, but it would kick in again when your copy
is fired up. This is what happens when you walk from A to B: you
disappear from the universe at A, and some time later your copy
appears at B and has much the same experiences as the original at A.
Objection: walking retains the same matter.
Response: metabolic processes replace most of the matter in your body
over months, and you still feel that you're the same person.
Objection: there is continuity of consciousness in the intermediate
stages as you walk from A to B.
Response: not if you are anaesthetised and carried.
-- Stathis Papaioannou
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jul 17 2013 - 04:01:04 MDT