[extropy-chat] Probability of identity - solution?

[Heartland]

Jef:
> Slawomir, it appears this would have been a good opportunity to
> paraphrase your understanding of what the other person is trying to say,
> rather than responding with the shallow implication that he's being
> stupid.

Ok. Since you insist, I will paraphrase what he's saying. He claims that beliefs 
are equivalent to knowledge so if he "thinks" he is John Clark, then it must be the 
case that he is John Clark. So, according to this view, if I brainwashed him into 
believing he was an ant, that belief and nothing else determines the truth value of 
the statement, "John Clark is a ant." That's simply nonsense.

Jef:
> John is making a hugely important point that many people don't grasp,
> that *all meaning* is subjective.

It's also a red herring in this debate that doesn't pertain to the things I'm 
talking about.

Jef:
> John also points out that you repeatedly offer circular definitions;
> such behavior being the crux of both cognitive dissonance and endlessly
> unproductive argument.

Jef, you can't continue to accuse me of these things without giving specific 
examples.

Jef:
> In a discussion such as this, one would hope to clearly highlight the
> differences between two points of view, to be left for resolution in the
> (indefinite) future as each person's knowledge base converges on an
> increasingly accurate model of reality.

As you may recall, not long ago, I've spent a whole month highlighting those 
differences on this list. At some point one has to accept that some people have the 
capacity to understand those differences and some don't. It's okay if not everyone 
understands. Really.

In summary, I'm talking exclusively about physical survival, not some hopelessly 
confused and abstract notion of personal identity. I don't care who I am as long as 
I am. (BTW, the "I's" here mean something very different from what you and John 
Clark think). I don't care about my "pattern." I only care about the process that 
wrote this sentence and its potential to experience something instead of nothing in 
the future.

At the end of the day you have to ask yourself 2 questions: "What does it really 
mean to survive?" and, "Why does survival matter?" Without converging on the same 
answers to these questions first, there's absolutely no point in continuing this 
discussion.

S.