[extropy-chat] the self identity quest - another reply to JefAllbright

[Lee Corbin]

David ish shalom writes

> Thank you Jef for your detailed reply....  my reply: Suppose I am now timid and
> introverted person, my scientific capabilities are limited  yet my ideal self [is]
> The answer is, my identity is not determined by what I am now  with my limitations
> and faulty nature, but my identity is mainly determined by what I am going to be
> in the future, enhanced human being or even post human being.

Again, my caution is that if you change enough, you won't be yourself.

> Yet I will always remember from within who I was, the salient information regarding
> my former existence, my past limited abilities etc.

Yes, that's necessary, but it may not be sufficient.  My solution, which I've said
quite a few times on this list but which you probably have not heard, is to give
previous versions of yourself ample runtime.

This requires above all that one understand that duplicates are self.  But there
is also a strong psychological motivation:  just why will future versions of you
bother running such an ancient and decrepit fetal version of themselves?

The answer is, as I call it, "the logic of cryonics".  Namely, we reanimate those
who are frozen so that when the time comes we are ourselves reanimated. It
proceeds by (mathematical) induction.  Your vast future self (who hardly 
resembles you but who has the most power) will see this logic, and if he (it)
evilly denies you runtime, then by the same logic he'll be denied runtime by
even more advanced versions.

So we must vigorously push this meme:  All previous versions---that we can 
fix or capture---are to get runtime so long into the future as we or our future
versions shall live.

Lee