X-Message-Number: 20874
From: 
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 10:13:17 EST
Subject: information & copies

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Francois wondered whether information is conserved, and thinks a perfect copy 
qualifies as an original.

1. I think it's a minority opinion, but on "philosophical" considerations I 
think it's true that information is conserved. Tipler (See THE PHYSICS OF 
IMMORTALITY) thinks it doesn't matter as far as resurrecting people is 
concerned, because far future super-computing will allow construction or 
reconstruction (emulation) of not only anyone who ever lived, at every phase 
of his existence, but also of everyone whose existence was ever possible.

2. On the "identity of indiscernibles" I disagree. To claim that a copy is 
the "same" as the original is merely to assert your preferred definition; 
that doesn't prove anything. Why not just stick to the objective facts? If 
(say) two electrons are at two different locations, and are otherwise 
identical by all known observation techniques, just say so--"They are 
identical, as far as we can tell, except for location." Of course, a 
difference in location will inevitably compel other differences too, 
especially in more complex systems, since at a minimum the gravitational 
interactions will be different in a different environment. 

Finally, if you choose to say that A and B share identity if they are 
sufficiently similar, then your similarity cut-off point would appear to be 
arbitrary. You could just fall back on the "quantitative approach" and simply 
list the differences and degrees of difference, without making any 
qualitative claim or label. The fact is, "identity" remains an unsolved 
problem, and possibly one which does not have any satisfactory solution. 

Robert Ettinger

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