X-Message-Number: 16126
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 22:00:08 -0700
From: Lee Corbin <>
Subject: Re: Space and Time and Identity

Andrew Davidson writes

>Scenario:  You wake from suspension and a white-coated doctor welcomes
>you back and says that they'd like to perform some tests to make sure
>that all is well.  You naturally agree and he asks you a series of
>questions - "How do you feel?", "What's your favourite colour?", "What
>is your first memory?" and so forth.

>The doctor starts to frown as the test progresses and eventually says,
>"I'm sorry Mr Smith but the revival has not been a complete success.
>We haven't recovered your personality to the specified tolerance and
>so we're going to have to try again.  Excuse us, we'll have to
>deactivate you now."

>As he reaches for a red button, you exclaim, "Wait a minute!  I feel
>ok - what about _me_?  And shouldn't you have worked all this out in
>advance before you revived me?"

Well, there are two possible cases.  In the first, you don't
resemble the original very much at all.  (They really messed
up, and left out a whole lot, or interspersed a lot of spurious
memories, to the extent that you are an entirely different person.)
Then you have to beg:  "Doctor, I will be your personal slave
for years and years, and do everything that I can do to reward
you for the consideration of letting me live as a separate person.
Just because I never existed, why shouldn't I also get a chance at
life?  Can't we somehow make a copy and we can try getting the
original back a little later on?"  Your plea has merit, and I for
one think that as many people as possible have to be rescued from
non-existence.

In the second case, you closely resemble the original, it's just
that quite a bit is missing.  It's a lot like suddenly noticing,
as you are reading this, that all your high school memories aren't
accessible.  Well, not to worry.  You can anticipate waking up
properly in a while after the doctor has made the corrections.

>My conclusion is that, as with current surgery, it's best if you are
>not conscious when the doctors are rearranging your innards/identity -
>being awake during the process is bound to be painful.  But what if,
>like certain types of brain surgery, the process demands that you be
>conscious...?


Doesn't sound like a hard problem to me.  How much do you want to live?

Lee

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