[ExI] Is a copy of you really you?

[John Clark]

On Tue, May 26, 2020 at 8:24 PM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Let's assume that this impossible operation is done while the original is
> asleep.
>

Violating the Second Law of Thermodynamics, faster than light movement, and
traveling into the past is impossible; what you're talking about is not
impossible, it  just requires better engineering than what we can achieve
today.

> When he wakes up he feels normal - right?  The copy wakes up and what?
>

And then both do what they have always done when they wake up.

> They do not, cannot, share a consciousness, right?
>

No that's not right.  They will share the same consciousness until
something makes them diverge, like one of them seeing something the other
does not and forming different memories because they are now in different
environments.

> But the copy has all the memories of the original and so thinks he is
> that person whose mind and body he occupies.
>

And what he thinks would be absolutely correct. After all, exactly what is
so original about "the original"?

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

I wouldn't mind in the slightest being told I was the copy, in fact I'd be
delighted because that would mean that engineering had reached the point
where immortality becomes feasible. So I wouldn't become psychotic, or at
least not more psychotic than I already am.

John K Clark
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