X-Message-Number: 14849
Date: Sun, 05 Nov 2000 13:37:00 +0100
From: Henri Kluytmans <>
Subject: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

-->Hi,

Maybe I should have made the subject header : "If it ain't necessary, 
don't assume new physics."  :)

I wrote :

>>This was my hypothetical scenario :
>
>>Your body is taken apart atom by atom. All the atoms 
>>are labeled when they are stored away. The locations 
>>of every atom are stored in a database. Then the body 
>>is build up again, atom by atom, to its original state. 
>>Every original atom is put in its old place. The body 
>>is reanimated.
>>Would you mind ?

David Pizer replied :

>I think I would mind.  

But I must point out to you, that according to current physical 
theories the bodies before and after disassembly are chemically 
and biologically identical...

Some people claim that some new and still unknown physical 
mechanisms will be required to explain how are our brain 
(i.e our consciousness) functions. Please note that a conscious 
state implies a running (i.e. living, animated) state. Although 
I disagree with this, because I think that there are no good 
reasons to have to assume new physical mechanisms for explaining 
the mind (applying Occams razor), most of those people at least 
seem to agree with me regarding a deanimated state.

They agree that in case of a *frozen* state *NO new physics* is 
required to describe our brain. I.e. they agree that a complete 
chemical description (as according to conventional physics) of the 
structure of a frozen body is sufficient to recreate that body.

Now you seem to go a step further! You claim that even in a 
frozen state new unknown physics is required for describing 
the body. You claim that a frozen body (at for example 0.1 
degrees Kelvin) is more than just a chemical structure of 
molecules and atoms !!!

I would like to know : "What is your scientific motivation to 
assume the necessity of some new and unknown physics ?"

What new physics and why ???

PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME !!!! : "What kind of unknown physical 
processes are taking place in a chemical structure at 0.1 
degrees Kelvin ???


>If selfhood is a unique continuing process, we now have to know if the
>re-assembled person is a continuation of the original process or a new
>process.  

Continuity in what ?


>But .. why take the person apart?  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Uhh, that's why it was a hypothetical scenario...

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