[ExI] Let's play What If.

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2010/10/26 Alan Grimes <agrimes at speakeasy.net>:
> While I'm waiting for my evening medication to kick in, lets see if I
> can finish a quick little vignette before I go to sleap.
>
>
> Lets say you went in for a non-destructive uploading. Lets say that, to
> your great surprise, you woke up in both situations simultaneously.
> While retaining your original consciousness, you also, at the same time,
> and in the same way, experienced everything your upload did (and vice
> versa).
>
> What say you to that?
>
> I would say that I would find that situation very interesting and I
> would work to improve the situation of both sides of my being without
> malice or prejudice. If the link between the two halves of my being were
> sufficiently robust, I would evolve the uploaded part so that it would
> be as effective as possible in its situation while providing my original
> self with the upgrades it wants and use both halves to work towards
> paradise. =)

If the copy and the original have a telepathic link that is an
additional fact about the uploading situation which changes the whole
thought experiment. Assuming just the copying happens and there is no
other funny business going on, you would expect to end up as either
the copy or the original with equal probability. Before the procedure
if one of the copy or the original is to be tortured you will be
anxious, because there is a 1/2 probability that you will be tortured.
After the procedure if you find yourself observing a copy of you being
tortured you are relieved (while feeling sorry for the copy) because
you are not the one in pain.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou