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

[Lee Corbin]

Stathis writes

> On 4/29/07, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
>
> > What if you
> > are killed tonight by some gangsters, and replaced by an actor
> > they've paid to imitate John K.Clark.  The person acts like you do,
> > and since (say) you're a recluse, no one notices (he has studied
> > your emails carefully).  What if, to make it convincing, they also
> > somehow hypnotize that actor to actually believe that he is
> > the person he's imitating?  Then *you* are dead, regardless of
> > your phony criterion of "subjectively".
> >
> > Subjectively he thinks he's you.  Does that make him you? OF
> > course not!
>
> If it's done perfectly, then you would have to say that the actor is you,
> wouldn't you?

Yes, because if it's done perfectly then all your memories are recreated
in him, and all of his are discarded.  So you have survived.

Lee

>  The converse situation is that the gangsters don't kill you, but knock you around and brainwash you so that you forget everything 
> about your past and identity, and instead have false memories implanted. In that case, the gangsters have done almost as good a 
> job as killing you outright - and I say "almost" only because there may be some hope that the procedure is reversible.
<