Re: Copying nonsense (was Re: [sl4] Uploading (was : goals of AI))

From: Rewot Fetterkey (fetterkey@gmail.com)
Date: Sat Dec 05 2009 - 19:21:43 MST


Can you clarify that? How, exactly, is consciousness nonexistent?

On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 5:43 PM, Matt Mahoney <matmahoney@yahoo.com> wrote:

> If a copy of you is made by some means then there will be two people who
> claim to be you. If one of them is killed then one of them is killed.
>
> I don't understand why this is such a difficult concept.
>
> You ask which copy will be you? What will you experience? These are not
> well formed questions because "you" is not a well defined concept in a world
> where minds can be copied. The question only has artificial importance
> because of this evolved belief in this nonexistent thing that people so
> desperately want to preserve, sometimes called a "consciousness", "qualia",
> "experience", or a "soul" that has absolutely no effect on behavior. So why
> even talk about it? If you taboo the words "you" and "I" then there is no
> controversy whatsoever.
>
> Really, this whole discussion is getting tedious. I could go through the
> SL4 archives and find a dozen more just like it if I didn't have more
> important things to do with my time.
>
> -- Matt Mahoney, matmahoney@yahoo.com
>
>



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