[ExI] Destructive uploading.

[The Avantguardian]

----- Original Message -----
> From: Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com>
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Cc: 
> Sent: Wednesday, September 7, 2011 5:42 PM
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Destructive uploading.
> 
> 2011/9/6 Florent Berthet <florent.berthet at gmail.com>:
> 
>> So, when you say "I want to survive through uploading", you are 
> really
>> saying "I want the phenomenon of my consciousness to be able to run 
> again on
>> another substrate". So it's really an altruistic act: you are not 
> doing this
>> for you, but for a phenomenon that will feel like you. When you understand
>> that, your sense of self vanishes, and being egoistic doesn't even 
> makes
>> sense anymore because you won't even profit from what you do: what you 
> do
>> will benefit to a future being that will be similar to you but will be a
>> different physical experience.
>

Stathis writes:
 
> When you say "I want to survive in this body for another year" you are
> being altruistic rather than selfish, since in a year most of the
> matter in your body will have been replaced, and the person who
> survives is someone who looks like you and believes he is you, but
> isn't really you.

There is an assumption there that identity is a property of matter moving through the system. Matter is fungible, the configuration state of the system itself is not. In your example, there was something both physical and continuous about you despite the turnover of matter in your body over the year. That something was metabolism, a continuous complex chemical reaction that at all times could in theory be mapped to the label Stathis. Therefore, you are still you after all this time.  
The water in Niagra Falls continuously replenishes itself every second. That doesn't mean it is no longer Niagra Falls.
    


Stuart LaForge


"When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things bought 
and sold are legislators." - P. J. O'Rourke