[extropy-chat] Re: identity and copies, yet again

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Sim Bamford <sim at plaything.co.uk> wrote:

> Mike Lorrey said:
> 
> >Furthermore, the original would say he doesn't want to die, if he
> has
> Damiens opinion, while the copy might say: I am the copy, therefore I
> do not deserve to live... and therefore kill himself. THis would make
> the copy quite distinctly different from the original.<
> 
> If a group of friends whom you trust completely sat you down today
> and convinced you that actually you were a copy of Mike Lorrey, not
> the original, would you kill yourself?

I'm not the one whose opinion we are talking about. Besides that, you
are making the assumption that I could be convinced of it. 

If I felt that copies were illegitimate and I was a copy, then I might
just do that. It happens already in the world, when people, in cultures
with strong prohibitions against bastardy, find out they are bastards,
for example, or when an intimate couple finds out they are actually
siblings and they believe that incest is a mortal sin, etc. Murderers
who are born again in prison doing life terms are well known to state
that they believe they should be executed for their sins.

If I were a luddite who found out I was actually a clone, then, yes, I
might just kill myself. Hypothetically speaking. Of course, if I were
not actually a clone, just that someone had convinced me of it, then
they would be guilty of felony murder.

Of course, the hypothetical situation merely proves that a copy can be
different from the original, contrary to John Clark's presumption.

=====
Mike Lorrey
Chairman, Free Town Land Development
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                         -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sadomikeyism


		
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