X-Message-Number: 32527
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 13:54:10 +0000 (UTC)
From: Melody Maxim <>
Subject: Copies of "Me" - Uploading and Nanotech


I'm really ignorant, in regard to things like nanotech and uploading, but one 
thought stays in my mind, as I read these discussions. If current technology 
allowed for perfect duplicates of myself, and fifty of my duplicates were in the
same room with me, which one would be "me"? According to some of you, it seems 
I would no longer be "me," but would be a community of "myselves," instead! 
Would we always think the same thoughts? Have the same values? Not likely, for 
very long. Once my copies had their own lives, they would become individuals. I 
would probably still be here taking care of my family, and my copies would be 
out, doing their own thing. What good would that be, to me? If I invited them 
all over for a party, would they all show up wearing the same dress?   ;)


I know it seems almost "religious," but there is something that makes me "me," 
and copies of me will always be copies. If you made a copy of me who felt like 
(thought) she was me, and she was standing next to me, I would say she was not 
me, because I was still me. Knowing she was going to live forever, (or until she
was destroyed in some sort of accident), wouldn't make "me" feel any better. 
(Now, I'm laughing at the thought of being able to have an argument with my 
copy, over who was "me.") In my mind, the goal should be to prolong my own life 
as much as possible. Like everyone else, I want to live a long time, but I'm not
vain enough to think the world would be a better place if "someone like me" 
inhabited it, indefinitely.


Now, I know this was not technical enough for those of you interested in 
nanotech and uploading, and I doubt it fulfilled Mr. Ettinger's requirements for
sound philosophy, but when it comes to copying myself, I just don't see how 
that would help "me" live any longer.

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