X-Message-Number: 14153 Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 07:48:10 -0700 From: Lee Corbin <> Subject: Re: Survival through Future Selves Mike Perry, #14141 writes >As a rough approximation, I will say that my present self survives >in a future self if that self has memories of having been the >present self and feels a sense of identification with the present >self. I almost entirely agree with Mike. But suppose that I ingested midazolam half an hour ago, and therefore will remember nothing of what I am doing at the present moment. I think it's a mistake for me to suppose that I'm about to perish, because objectively there will arise tomorrow a physical object as identical to me as are the physical objects that arise every morning in my house. So we who hold to the information theory of identity, as Mike Perry has always called it, must consider ourselves other than just memory supersets. As for my feelings about whether "I'm myself", those are very nice to have, but I want to become so well integrated that I can ignore (for the most part) such feelings. I will live on in our solar system (or elsewhere) precisely if there exist functioning physical objects sufficiently similar in structure to the person that I've been the last 20 years or so. Huzzah for the information theory of identity. I know it's strange to think that any such close resembler (like my duplicate in the next room) is really and truly and totally me, but that's what our best theories of how the universe works are telling us. Lee Corbin Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14153