[ExI] dualism

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 04/04/2023 21:54, bill w wrote:
> en, if it were possible to copy my brain contents into a clone or a 
> computer, it would be another me in a sense, but I can't see how I 
> could be conscious in both 'bodies'.  So, yes, true dualist. Otherwise 
> it's just magical thinking in my opinion.  It follows that if a copy 
> were made and put into a clone after I am dead, my consciousness is 
> still dead - there is no more 'me'.  Although the copy would fool 
> anyone.   bill w

Sorry, you've confused me now.

Earlier, you said you are not a dualist, now you're saying "yes, true 
dualist". I assume that was a mistake, and you meant "true materialist"?

Your statement above classifies you, for me, as a cryptodualist. "Yes a 
copy of me would be me in a sense, but I can't see how I could be 
conscious in both bodies". Full rejection of dualism requires acceptance 
of multiple instantiations of the self. Two independent you's, both 
equivalent to the original in every sense, including consciousness 
(independent but initially identical constiousnesses, no 'group-mind or 
anything like that). Weird, yes I know, and takes quite a bit of 
pondering to wrap your head around (certainly did with me, anyway), but 
logically necessary. I find the example of an amoeba dividing to be a 
good way of thinking about it. Think of your mind as an amoeba, dividing 
into two identical amoebas, which then separate and go about their 
individual lives. There is no 'original amoeba', they have exactly equal 
status, but where there was one, now there are two.

The thing that most people can't seem to get past, is the idea that 
there can only be one you. That any 'extra you' has to be 'not-you' in 
some sense (as if the amoeba had a 'special' organelle that for some 
reason can't be copied, and has to be handed to only one of the two 
daughter amoebas). I can see that this is natural, seeing as we've never 
had to think about this idea in the past, but again, as with my post 
about the language we use (see that I'm not exempt from this either, I 
still say 'your mind', etc.). if there can only be one you, even when 
everything about you is copied, then there must be /something else/, 
that's not copyable. That impllies magic, the idea that 'mind' and 
'soul' are in fact different things, one subject to the known laws of 
nature, one not. That's dualism.

Ben