X-Message-Number: 25428
From: "Valera Retyunin" <>
Subject: Creating a Thomas Donaldson from a thinking record
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 20:53:09 +0300

Thomas Donaldson writes:
"That entire issue of duplication is an irrelevancy. If, however, a single
version is recreated from a (sufficiently good!) record, then I will return
to life with the same QE I had before --- since, after all, my QE would be
part of the record (remember that we're assuming that it is a physical
object, which will therefore be recordable and recreatable)."

Suppose more than one copy of you is recreated simultaneously based on your
record. Which copy would be you, i.e. hold your unique sense of self? Or,
being given a choice of copies, you would simply refuse to "reincarnate" at
all?
The QE is indeed recordable and recreatable (in the sense of creating
copies) but cannot be part of any record of itself. A record of an object is
not that object and cannot contain that object. It can only be used to
create new, similar objects. A record of a sound, for instance, is not that
sound. It may be used to create a more or less exact copy of the sound. We
regard it as "the same" sound because the only thing that is important to us
is the effect produced by the original sound, and the effect produced by the
copy is more or less similar to that. We do not care about the sound's inner
life. Likewise, your record may be used to create a more or less exact copy
of you. It may only be considered "the same" person by those who don't care
about the preservation of your inner life. Are you one of those?

Thomas Donaldson writes:
"And how is it, if you believe as I understand you believe that our QE is
ultimately a physical object or system, that it cannot be copied so that I
will retain the same QE as I had before?"

The QE is indeed material. That's at least the only thing that we know about
it. I personally have never heard of any scientific evidence for immaterial
souls. And the QE *can* be copied in principal. And after you are copied, if
you are not killed, you will retain the same QE as you had before. But since
the QE is material, you will still be in your old skull, not in your copy's,
unless of course you have your brain surgically transferred from one skull
to the other.

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