[extropy-chat] What should survive and why?

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On 01/05/07, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:

Stathis wrote (and I hope that I'm not doing damage by getting
> it out of context)
>
> > If I-now think I've survived as a continuation of I-before,
> > then that's what matters in survival.
>
> But this "think" can be mistaken, can't it?  It seems to me that you are
> saying a lot of what John Clark was saying (when I was taking him
> literally).  What about my example of a nut who knows a lot about
> Napoleon and has begun to *think* that he is Napoleon. Is that
> all that matter's in Napoleon's survival?


It would have to be more than just a belief, of course. It would have to
include all the memories, thought patterns, abilities etc. that we would
normally require for a person to qualify as the same person from day to day.
It would be impossible in practice for one person to emulate another with
the required fidelity, although I don't see why there should be a problem
with it in principle. After all, mind uploading involves teaching a computer
to believe it is you, and the computer ostensibly has less in common with
you than you have in common with a madman.

Stathis Papaioannou
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