[extropy-chat] Timeshifting

[Harvey Newstrom]

Robert J. Bradbury wrote,
> On Thu, 26 Feb 2004, Harvey Newstrom wrote:
> > DNA cloning does not duplicate people.  It is just another way of
> > reproducing a human from a single cell.  But that human 
> > would not be closer than we two brothers are right now.  There may
> > not be any way to tell which of us were cloned, because the clone
> > would not be any more similar to one brother than the other.
> 
> Harvey (and Adrian) I understand this.  My best guess right
> now is that genetics would only get you 50-60% of an 
> identity.  

I am assuming that you don't know any identical twins.  They are not 50-60%
the same personality or identity.  To claim that an upload of one would be
50-60% the same as an upload of the other is outrageous.  They simply aren't
that similar.  You are giving DNA much more deterministic control over
people's identity decades later than it could possibly have.  Again,
identical twins simply disprove your assumptions.

> But that is a start. I probably have most of my
> financial records in detail for about 20 years (so one could 
> easily determine "what has Robert done?").  I have (or the 
> net could provide) many of my email posts dating back perhaps 
> 20-25 years. Combine this with photographs of where I have 
> been and what I have seen and done and one starts to come up 
> with a Robert-B that knows much if not more than what 
> Robert-A knows about what he has done.

You must greatly underestimate what you know or what you have done if you
think your sum-total knowledge can be recreated from credit card receipts,
itineraries, and e-mails.  It simply isn't even 1% of your sum-total
knowledge, memories, experiences, and psychology.

> Place this on top of a genetic profile that determines
> motivations, feelings, etc.
> and one starts to develop a 
> personality that determines who you are, how you act, etc.

Genetic profiles DON'T determine motivations, feelings, etc.  You are simply
wrong about this assumption.  Psychologists get all excited if they can
detect a statistically significant connection of a percent or two between
genetic factors.  People are still 98% unpredictable, much less internally
deterministic.

-- 
Harvey Newstrom, CISSP, CISA, CISM, IAM, IBMCP, GSEC
Certified IS Security Pro, Certified IS Auditor, Certified InfoSec Manager,
NSA Certified Assessor, IBM Certified Consultant, SANS GIAC Certified GSEC
<HarveyNewstrom.com> <Newstaff.com>