X-Message-Number: 25551
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 08:35:47 -0600
From: Jeff Dee <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #25538 - #25548
References: <>

--------------080405020205040800030107

X-Message-Number: 25543
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 17:20:56 +0100
From: Henri Kluytmans < <mailto:>>
Subject: Re: More of the Duplicates Paradox

Henri Kluytmans writes:

In reply to Richard, Jeff Dee wrote:

> > First, I disagree with your basic premise that duplicate things are 
> > necessarily expendable. Do you own two of anything that are (for all 
> > practical purposes) identical? I have two effectively identical 
> > Dilbert mugs. Does that mean I shouldn't mind at all if you took a 
> > sledgehammer to one of them? Of course not.
> > Second, our tendency to see extra value in friends and loved ones - 
> > the people we know we have things in common with, and who we feel we 
> > can rely on, is well known. I submit that this would automatically 
> > extend to duplicates who we know for a fact share all of our likes 
> > and dislikes.

> But when I have to copies of a program on my harddrive.
> I wouldn't mind if you would delete one of them. After all, 
> I can always make new copies, as long as one copy of the 
> information remains.

I concede that in many important senses duplicate human beings are 
similar to duplicate pieces of software. However, there is one 
difference that I'm confident our culture will recognize. The 
difference is, duplicate people are *people*.

That being said, I'm also confident that we're moving (slowly) in 
the direction of a more rational attitude toward suicide. If a 
person considers *herself* redundant and expendable, that is 
different from someone else deciding it for her.

-Jeff Dee


--------------080405020205040800030107

 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii

[ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] 

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=25551