[ExI] Is a copy of you really you?

[Adrian Tymes]

On Tue, May 26, 2020 at 5:23 PM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> The discussion so far has managed to sidestep an earlier issue -
> consciousness.
>
> Let's assume that this impossible operation is done while the original is
> asleep.  When he wakes up he feels normal - right?  The copy wakes up and
> what?
>

Also feels normal.

They do not, cannot, share a consciousness, right?  But the copy has all
> the memories of the original and so thinks he is that person whose mind and
> body he occupies.
>

Right.  So there are now two different consciousnesses, that forked from
the same original one.

Also note that, given the operation, there is no such thing as "the
original" afterward.  There may be one that wakes up before the other, but
both of them are equally the original at first.

When told what happened he becomes psychotic - my guess.
>

Why?  The person knows that there are two of him.  Even if he and the other
one agree that the other one gets to be treated as the original and he
claims the title of a newborn copy, that would be a rational agreement, not
the basis for psychosis.

Even if the second person is bullied into seeing himself as a copy - so
what?  "I am a copy", when this is materially provable (in that
there is some other who he and the other both agree is the "original") does
not contain any cause or flavor of psychosis.
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