[extropy-chat] Detectives and red herrings (was Survivaltangent)

[Lee Corbin]

Mike writes

> On 11/10/06, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
> > If you and I gradually over the years slowly become more and more
> > advanced, but somehow we both manage to remember Lee Corbin's
> > childhood, teenage years, fascination with chess, the close game with
> > David Bronstein in a simul, the years writing under the name "Lee 
> > Corbin" on the Fabric of Reality list, and so on and on, then you are
> > dead, and there are *two* Lee Corbins.  Surely, if you value your
> > survival, you do not want this to happen.  Keep your own memories,
> > stay alive!

> I think I understand your position (considering how frequently it has been restated)

Thanks!  And sorry for the restating, but there has been *so* much misunderstanding.

> Suppose you have keepsakes from each of the vacations you have been
> on (refrigerator magnets, shot glasses, marginally evil tiki dolls, primitive
> masks, pottery, etc. etc.)  These are all physical tokens which cue your
> memory of those events.  Their placement around your home (general
> definition of home; the space you inhabit, whatever) gives some clue to
> an observer the relative priority of each of these tokens.  I imagine some
> of those treasures end up in a box at the back of the garage.  At that point,
> the memory-triggering value of that item has been decreased to almost zero.
> Suppose I have a garage sale without your consent and clean out the clutter.
> Have I "killed" some part of you?

By selling off the items, you haven't affected me at all.  This is because
I may have been miles away at the time of sale. But:

> Of course you might be able to recall the memories without the physical tokens,

Let's say not, just to make your case stronger.

>but if you have been uploaded and the garage I have cleaned out is an failing
> old RAID - then you might be arguing that I have in fact destroyed some of
> your identity, correct? 

By the destruction of stored cues, or destruction of my journals and diaries
that *do* contain information that I can't recall, you have indeed made
impossible the recovery of some parts of my earlier identity.  In that sense,
by destroying that information, you have destroyed my earlier (but now
forgotten) identity---but of course, only to a certain *degree*.

Gradual loss of early memory does for sure slowly destroy older parts
of your identity.  In the familiar example, if an 80 year old can no longer
remember anything about being 8, and has no memory overlap with the
8 year old that he used to be, then that 8 year old is dead and gone.

Lee