[ExI] Uploads are self

[John Clark]

On 21/03/2026 21:19, Jason Resch wrote:

* > Functionalism is a theory in the philosophy of mind. If one accepts
> functionalism, then that is enough to establish the uploaded mind will be
> conscious.*
>

*Yes. And an implicit belief in functionalism is the reason you feel
certain that solipsism is untrue and your fellow human beings are
conscious, except when they are sleeping or under anesthesia or dead. *

* > But functionalism is silent on the question of which experiences
> instantiated in which places are experience[s] you can expect to be yours.*
>

*No, and when discussing this topic great care is needed in the use of
personal pronouns. According to functionalism the "you" of yesterday is the
"you" who says he remembers being the "you" of yesterday. And yes, if two
beings are able to do that then they are both the "you" of yesterday. Using
this procedure one can always look back through time and see a continuous
chain of "yous", but trying to do this into the future does not work, it
would be like pushing on a string. As Hugh Everett said in his original PhD
thesis that introduced the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics,
it would be like asking which one was the real original amoeba after it
reproduced by dividing in two. *

*And if you reject functionalism then you'd need to take the idea that
you're the only conscious being in the universe seriously. Do you really
want to do that? *

*  John K Clark*


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