[extropy-chat] Avoid Too Much Change

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On 4/8/07, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:

"The only issue," he goes on, "is that some of you may have a problem
> about identity.  You see, the moment that your IQ becomes 12,000
> and you know everything about Earth history and the pitifully
> primitive life forms that you used to be, you no longer resemble the same
> person that you used to be at all, any more than you currently resemble
> the
> fetus that you were eight months before birth.
>
> "Now then.  Who wants to go first?"
>
> Unless I had guarantees that there'd be storage enough and the
> ability to run lots of old-fashioned Lees in parallel to all the
> Lee-Pluses,
> I'd decline. The reason that I would decline is that I don't believe in
> souls, and so cannot see---on scientific grounds---why the new little
> device that I was supposedly downloaded into would resemble me
> (or be me) at all.


The main difference between your scenario and growing up from infancy to
adulthood seems to be that the latter occurs more slowly. If an infant grew
up in a second, amassing knowledge in the process just as if he had grown up
in the usual manner, the new adult might have regrets about missing out on
childhood but if he considered that the infant had died that would be no
different to all of us considering that our infant selves had died.

Stathis Papaioannou
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