[ExI] Uploads are self

[Keith Henson]

I think the attribution got confused.  I know about this story, but I
don't think I responded in this thread.

Keith

On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 5:36 AM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat

<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 6:44 AM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> > On 25/03/2026 03:39, Keith Henson wrote:
> > > There is a nice short story that yours also reminds me of, called The Pit and the Duplicate: https://web.archive.org/web/20081122035540/http://www.leecorbin.com/PitAndDuplicate.html
> >
> > Excellent, thanks Keith, I didn't know about that one.
> >
> > It's probably the best version I've seen, that clearly shows the problem with dualistic thinking when uploading comes along.
> >
> > I would have added another button, that copies the person in the pit and kills them at exactly the same time, to complete things.
>
> I would have pointed out that the duplicates - possibly just the first
> one, certainly by the thousandth - were in ample position to lower a
> rope end or something to the original and rescue the original.
>
> I would have also noted that the first duplicate had no standing to
> imply (via "Have faith! Press the button again, and you'll escape
> too!") that pushing the button a second time would completely solve
> the problem, since the first duplicate would have first hand evidence
> that pushing the button again would only partially solve the problem.
> (In other words, "you'll escape too" was a lie of omission: the
> wording implies that all "you"s would escape, but one "you" would not,
> and the person uttering that knew this to be the case.)
>
> The completed Webcomic Schlock Mercenary made a plot arc out of this
> sort of thing, when a guy named Gavin got teleporter-cloned to the
> point that he became a minor demographic.  The plot arc explored some
> consequences of this.
>
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