[ExI] Open Individualism

[Adrian Tymes]

On Sat, Jan 6, 2024 at 8:39 AM Jason Resch via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Do you believe in Occam's razor as a useful tool in deciding what theories
> are science?
>
> If so the. Open individualism is the only scientific theory of personal
> identity. I will explain why.
>

Except...


> Now I will show the same is true for conventional theories of personal
> identity, while open individualism makes no such untestable metaphysical
> assumptions, and therefore is like theory B above.
>
> Consider these two theories for why you were born:
>
> A) in order for you to be born and experience life, a particular sperm has
> to reach a particular egg, in a particular time, and at a particular place,
> in order for this metaphysical "you" (some call it a soul) to meet up, and
> attach itself to this exact combination of cells and particles.
>
> B) in order for you to be born and experience life, a sperm has to reach
> an egg.
>
> Which theory makes the least assumptions and is compatible with all the
> facts? Which theory is science, which is metaphysics?
>

...neither of these theories uniquely map to open individualism.  Also, the
distinction here is highly dependent on the definition of "you": are we
talking about the historical person, the theoretical unique individual
(which would be A rather than B: to generate this specific individual
required more than just any random sperm meeting up with any random egg),
or some other version?  Also there are other versions, for instance a more
extreme version of A that further adds in some of the mother's experiences
during pregnancy that influenced the pre-natal individual.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20240106/d38ad97a/attachment.htm>