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

Lee Corbin lcorbin at rawbw.com
Tue Nov 7 05:06:40 UTC 2006


John, getting really acerbic, writes

> 2) This random number stuff, as near as I can tell, was designed to counter
> the runtime theory, a theory NOT proposed by me, therefore I felt no great
> need to defend it. Personally I can't see why running the same program a
> million trillion billion times is much better than running it just once.

So if it's true that there is an extremely similar (only a trillion or so atoms
different with slightly different pattern) copy of you running on a planet
of Alpha Centauri, it's okay if it or you die?    Surely you demur.

Okay, so it's only 3 atoms different, and the difference in pattern is
also incredibly tiny.  This is in effect running the same program twice,
once here and once at Alpha Centauri.  You don't think that it benefits
your pattern to have both instances continue?

And if there is, a billion years from now, a certain-to-execute 
EXACTLY identical copy of you that leads 10^10^145 light
years from here an EXACTLY similarly life, then it's okay for
you here, now, to die?  After all, your words:  "I can't see why
running a program [twice] is better than running it once."

You're sure now?

Lee





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