X-Message-Number: 25578
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 10:15:34 -0600
From: Jeff Dee <>
Subject: Re: Your identity will be removed
References: <>

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 "Basie" <> wrote:

> It is my opinion that in the far future personal identity will be 
> downplayed or even suppressed because fixation on it will stop 
> progress such as Teletransportation and other important developments.

Downplayed? Yes, I agree.

Before trains became common, many people feared that moving faster than 
the speed of a man on horseback would be injurious or fatal. As the 
technology became more pervasve, and the evidence mounted that no such 
harm ocurred, people got over it.

Suppressed? No, I doubt that.

To my knowledge, nobody's right to remain fearful of high speed travel 
had to be "suppressed" in order for train technology to flourish. I'm 
sure people who clung to their fear were the subjects of ridicule, and 
the same may apply to hard line physical identity fetishists. But 
poking fun is not "suppression".

> Eventually beings will evolve with no identity.

I'm not sure that's a coherent statement. Doesn't a "being", by 
definition, have an "identity"? I can see the concept itself becoming 
more fluid, able to accomodate the existence of duplicates, gestalts, 
and so on. But even a highly amorphous identity is an identity, isn't 
it?

> If your are still 
> suspended your identity will immediately be removed on being 
> unsuspended.

Please explain what you mean by "identity", and how it could be 
"removed". Also, what do you think would be gained by removing it 
upon revival?

> If you escape this lobotomy your probable will have to 
> go underground.

Shouldn't we leave the creation of these dystopian scenarios to the 
Luddites?

-Jeff Dee

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