[extropy-chat] Identity (was: Survival tangent)

[Randall Randall]

On Nov 6, 2006, at 6:08 PM, John K Clark wrote:
> "Randall Randall" <randall at randallsquared.com>
>> No one is disputing that the copy survives, John.
>
> The original, discuss, the copy, discuss; for God's sake people  
> grow up! If
> you really believe
> in this putrid crap then one of 2 things about you must be true:
>
> 1) You reject the Scientific Method as Heartland does and believes  
> in the
> sanctity of certain atoms.
>
> 2) You believe in the soul and you believe even Nanotechnology cannot
> duplicate the soul.
>
> I believe both beliefs are incredibly fantastically comically  
> stupid, but
> that's just my opinion I could be wrong. But I'm not.

As far as I know, no one in this conversation believes in either
your (1) or (2).  One of three things must be true:

1) it may be that you didn't realize this (and that you need to ask
Heartland what beliefs he actually *does* hold)

2) it may be that you are unwilling to accept any other position
than they one you expect he holds, no matter what anyone says

3) it may be that you already knew that he doesn't really believe
that (I'm including this one for completeness)

For myself, I would say that the particular running process of
Randall Randall that is now typing this email (which you'll see
a copy of shortly) is the one that matters most to me, even if
there are identical copies elsewhere.  The fact that this copy
and some other copy are bit for bit identical will not matter
to me if this copy were to have something bad happen to it, any
more than I would be consoled by the existence of other copies
of a CD I own, were my copy to be broken in two.

Nothing about the specific atoms matters; it's the process.  The
atoms in this process change out constantly, but the process
continues.

--
Randall Randall <randall at randallsquared.com>
"'The police got all the best stuff. They’re crookeder than us,'
  one man said." - http://tinyurl.com/85ltr