From: Stathis Papaioannou (stathisp@gmail.com)
Date: Mon Mar 09 2009 - 02:17:43 MDT
2009/3/9 Mike Dougherty <msd001@gmail.com>:
>> Removing the memory does not make the experience benign. If it did, no
>> experience would matter since we are all in the end demented or dead.
>
> granted. But the point is about identity continuity around events or the
> lack of memory of events.
>
> For all the upload and teleport philosophical devices, I don't think this is
> much different than if I were to get you so stupidly drunk that you had no
> recollection of events at last night's party. If I told you that you did
> XYZ heinous or embarrassing things, would you trust me and act accordingly?
> What if I provided pictures? What if those pictures were expertly
> photoshopped? Do you see how this might become a problem in a world where
> memory is as easily constructed/manipulated as photoshopped images?
I suppose I would make a decision based on the evidence I have.
Personal identity, consciousness, even probability are - if it needs
to be spelt out - inherently subjective. The philosophical discussions
are not about what actually happens in the world, since that is either
a given from the premises or trivially obvious, but about what sort of
illusion or subjective experience we will have.
-- Stathis Papaioannou
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