[extropy-chat] Personal Identity Bis

[Randall Randall]

On Apr 12, 2007, at 12:05 PM, Eugen Leitl wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 12, 2007 at 11:48:23AM -0400, Randall Randall wrote:
>> But that's no surprise, because the question of "is this
>> the same as that" is, by its nature, a question about the
>> history of the object or process.  I don't care if this
>> DVD is exactly like mine -- I can see that it most likely
>> is.  What I care about is whether this is *my* DVD, and
>> that's a question only answerable by reference to the
>> history of the object in question!
>
> Here's two DVDs from the same batch. Can you tell me which
> belongs whom, by just looking at the DVD? Assume that
> all identifying labels, scratches, etc. are not there.

Precisely.  The only difference is the history, but I'm
sure everyone would agree there is a distinct DVD I own
(in this situation), and the fact that we can't tell
which it is is a problem with our knowledge, not the fact
of the matter.

Similarly, it might well be impossible to tell from
existing information which of two Randalls is the original
(if either), but that doesn't mean that it is the case
that they're all equally the original -- it just means
we don't know.


--
Randall Randall <randall at randallsquared.com>
'Somebody wake up the National Rifle Association. Does the 2nd  
Amendment say
  "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be  
infringed except on
   commercial airliners"?' -- Garrison Keillor