[extropy-chat] Personal Identity Bis

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On 4/12/07, Heartland <velvethum at hotmail.com> wrote:

Stathis:
> > So if you were dragged out of a freezing lake and were successfully
> > resuscitated (or apparently so), would you consider that you were no
> longer
> > the original you,
>
> I would be lying to myself if I didn't. I-copy would enjoy life and feel
> sorry for
> what happened to my predecessor.
>
> Stathis:
> > and if so how would you introduce yourself and expect
> > family and friends to treat you when they came to see you in hospital?
>
> If I introduced myself as the original or a copy wouldn't change the fact
> the
> reinstantiated process would be a copy of the past process. If someone
> told me now
> that a person of my type suffered flat EEG, I would continue to introduce
> myself as
> the original for the sake of avoiding confusion unless I was sure the
> people around
> me would have the ability to comprehend my views about survival.
>

If you define death in this non-conventional way, what does it matter if you
die and are replaced by a copy? If it were discovered tomorrow that some
people during their sleep have brief periods of flat EEG activity, and
monitoring shows that you are one of these people (and have been for your
whole life), would it worry you? Would it change the way you live your life?
Do you have any evidence today that you are *not* one of these people?

Stathis Papaioannou
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