[ExI] No link between original and copy? Denied!

Stefano Vaj stefano.vaj at gmail.com
Sat Oct 30 13:48:16 UTC 2010


2010/10/30 Alan Grimes <agrimes at speakeasy.net>:
> Why should I accept my consciousness abruptly terminating merely because
> you choose to fetishize what might come after?

You shouldn't. Your consciousness is abrubtly terminated and restarted
many times a time, but nothing prevents you from opposing some forms
of termination more than other, including without any arguable ground.

Only, when the social perception of a continuity is well established,
you will be considered a kind of weirdo.

But of course, philosophically speaking, in the thought experiments,
or future technologies, pertaining to uploading or teleport, "death",
"continuity" or "rebirth" are purely arbitrary metaphors and the
discussion of their factual "accuracy" is literally meaningless, so
that no cogent factual argument can ever compel you to change your way
of interpreting what "really" happens in such scenarios.

> Why is it a "problem" that requires a solution? The problem that you
> describe exists only because you assert that uploading must be accepted
> (implying that you think everyone should be uploaded).

Do *I*?

My personal position is simply that an animal which looks like a duck,
swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck ends up invariably by being
considered a duck - by definition.

Not being a Platonist, the question of "whether it really participates
to the essence of duckness" is basically meaningless for me, and I
maintain that it is basically undecidable in rigorous terms anyway
even for those who care. Not even to confirm that "yes, it actually
does", as a few people here seem to believe.

-- 
Stefano Vaj



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