X-Message-Number: 20951
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 12:58:44 +0100
From: Henri Kluytmans <>
Subject: Identity, copies

Regarding the debate on identity I noticed the same mistakes and 
confusions as each time this "copy paradox" discussion pops up 
again. I copied some statements from old postings I made (years ago) :

a) Concerning : Identities and persons?

"Of course two different persons are not the same person.
Using the "term" person here, only confuses everything. I 
suggest not to compare "persons" but only *identities*.

I do claim that two frozen bodies with the exact identical 
chemical structure contain the same identity (but literally 
they are not the same person). But when the bodies will be 
animated then of course, the identities will immidiately 
start to diverge.

People always seem to mix up the terms "person" and "identity" 
and also the terms "information" and "memory". They are not 
interchangable!!

With "identity" I mean : the information describing a mind frozen 
in time. With "person" I mean : the mind when it is in a running 
state (i.e. an information process).
"

b) Concerning : Termination of a copy.

"The reason why so many people seem to object to the termination 
of a copy (or original) of themselves is only of emotional origin. 
Humans have an instincitve emotional system build in, that objects 
against any action to end his/her existence. This system is of 
course very useful for beings in biological bodies that never 
can spawn any copies. However it is to be questioned if this 
instinctive emotional system is still that usefull when being 
an uploaded entity."

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20951