From: Bradley Thomas (brad36@gmail.com)
Date: Wed Dec 02 2009 - 07:20:07 MST
>As usual in these thought experiments you assume you are the original, but
you must realize that both parties after the duplication would think they
are the original and you would need EXTREMELY good evidence to convince one
of them that they were wrong. And even then many just
wouldn't believe it no matter what.
It is arbitrary which person is used as the example from which the
perspective is drawn. I don't think this means there's necessarily an
assumption. I compare it to using "he" or "she" in writing, when either
gender works.
Brad Thomas
www.bradleythomas.com
Twitter @bradleymthomas, @instansa
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-sl4@sl4.org [mailto:owner-sl4@sl4.org] On Behalf Of John K Clark
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 12:12 AM
To: sl4 sl4
Subject: Re: [sl4] Uploading
On Wed, 2 Dec 2009 "John McNamara" <harlequin@novastar.org> said:
> Were a type 1 upload made of me involuntarily (I would not permit it)
> and I survived, I would consider them to be a sort of weird off-spring
> or distant relation.
As usual in these thought experiments you assume you are the original, but
you must realize that both parties after the duplication would think they
are the original and you would need EXTREMELY good evidence to convince one
of them that they were wrong. And even then many just
wouldn't believe it no matter what.
> I would not consider them as having any property
> rights over any of my physical or informational assets.
You would think that regardless if you were the original or the copy, you
would both think you have exclusive rights to John McNamara's assets, and
both would have an equally valid claim; after all you both vividly remember
buying them and you both remember earning the money to do so.
> I would be of the opinion that there should be legal societal rules to
> handle such an awkward situation.
So the scientific method cannot detect any difference between the two but
nevertheless you think there should be laws that treat the two differently.
Sounds rather like South Africa under apartheid.
> If a friend had an upload made and they didn't survive, I would
> consider my friend dead, mourn them and probably avoid the upload to
> preserve my own mental health.
Well of course you would. As I said before most people, even most people on
transhuman lists, believe in the soul. I don't.
John K Clark
-- John K Clark johnkclark@fastmail.fm -- http://www.fastmail.fm - IMAP accessible web-mail
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