[extropy-chat] Re: cryonics (was: Science and Fools)

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Hal Finney <hal at finney.org> wrote:

> I have two problems with the notion of "identity as continuity",
> which
> suggests that even an apparently successful cryonics revival would be
> a new person who is a mere copy of the old one.
> 
> The first problem is that this view tends to see identity in black
> and white terms. Either some future person is the same identity as
> me, or they are not.  There is no room for the idea of someone being
> partially the same identity as me, say 90% or 30% or some other
> percentage. Instead, in this view there is an actual "fact of the
> matter" about whether someone is the same identity as me.  It's not
> just a matter of definition or perspective. If my future 
> replacement's identity is not the same as mine, then I have died in
> a real, factual sense.

I am not the same person I was when I woke up this morning, I am more
so. I tend to accept the idea that my identity is merely that of a file
of memories, personality quirks, etc. that would likely start right
back up again if I were frozen perfectly and thawed perfectly at some
future time and revived.

The uncertainty I have wrt this concept though is the uncertainty that
everything inside my head that makes me me right now at this instant
will survive freezing and either thawing or uploading. This uncertainty
is based in the fact of our remaining gulf of ignorance about how the
brain creates mind and makes the individual awareness an emergent
phenomenon. I tend to by cynical enough to believe that any pinhead
doctor who is absolutely positive they know enough (now or at some
point in the future) to preserve and/or pull out all that essential
'me-ness' to revive 'me', is more likely than not full of crap (given
my past few years experience with pin-head doctors, I think this is a
pretty informed opinion).

After all this analysis, it is still better than a lottery ticket, and
you can't win if you don't play. Being burned or buried still costs
money and you get no return from the investment.

Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"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://intlib.blogspot.com


		
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