[extropy-chat] How to be copied into the future?

[Robert Bradbury]

On 4/25/07, Heartland <velvethum at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Heartland:
>   First of all, there's no such thing as a resurrection. Things can only
> be destroyed or created.


Cannot they be "recreated"?  A creation, one might argue is an instantiation
of a pattern expressed in matter.  Though its "initial" creation, can never
be recreated (it violates the definition of "initial") it is certainly hard
to argue against a precise rearrangement of atoms that are identical to the
original (yes you an argue this but doing so involves significant aspects of
identity of atoms, their precise location, etc.)   I am arguing that if you
take the "original" and the "copy" apart they are effectively identical.

Yes, one might argue that isotopic differences mean that they are not
"identical" and this would change thought patterns but you are into Penrose
territory here and I can easily refute it by citing a precise isotopic copy.

Stathis:
> > Yes, but an arbitrarily close to perfect copy is indistinguishable from
> a
> > resurrection, and indistinguishable from ordinary continuous life.


Stathis has it right here... (A copy is a copy is a copy...)  If it looks
like a duck, walks like a duck and behaves like a duck -- it is probably a
duck until one can present very strong evidence against it being a duck.
(This goes down a very interesting path -- to what extent will future
extropians be tasked with the problem of "That is not Max", "That is not
Anders", "That is not Natasha", "That is not Eugen" and "That does not even
remotely resemble Spike".  One may need a criteria to accept or reject
stand-ins.)

It's an illusion of resurrection, not an actual resurrection.


All "resurrections" are illusions.  To be a true "resurrection" I would
argue that you would have to restore the complete atomic state of an
individual at the time of their death.  As living humans are always "in
flux" (exchanging atomospheric atoms for "in body atoms", etc.) it is
probably impossible to "ressurrect" someone.

So the question under discussion is whether or not one is dealing with a
"true resurrection" (which probably is impossible) or an "effective
ressurection" which is perhaps quite possible.
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