[extropy-chat] Avoid Too Much Change.

[Lee Corbin]

John writes


> "Lee Corbin" <lcorbin at rawbw.com>
> 
>> Oh, no!  It's no tragedy for *me* that that thing turned into Lee Corbin.
>> But from the point of view of the fetus, it was death;  for it became unto
>> something totally unlike itself
> 
> OK, let's average the point of view of an adult man with a somewhat greater
> than average intelligence, a lot greater actually, with that of a fetus. I
> have a hunch the adult Lee Corbin would win that election in a landslide.

Sorry, I tried reading that several times, but couldn't make heads or tails
of it.  Perhaps you are speaking of values that are objectively true? Anyway,
according to my values (as I have said) neither the fetus nor the IQ 12000
person is me, unless the latter is very, very careful to think often lots of
old-style Lee Corbin thoughts.  (Almost as if he were running an earlier
version of me in his head.)

>>For me, growth includes only change that doesn't turn me into someone or
>>something else.
> 
> But I want to turn into something else, that is the entire point in living.
> Otherwise growth has no purpose and stagnation is the ultimate virtue. I
> don't buy it for one second!

Well, you want to turn into something else, and I don't.  That does seem to
tidily encapsulate the difference here.  I take it, however, that you don't
want to turn into just anybody. It must, as you said, "remember being you".
Can you explain a little better what that means, precisely?

(After all, I need to put limits on what it means, because maybe I'm you
already, or maybe in the far future I could fall in love with you and become
you, or something along those lines.)

Lee