I propose the following reformulation of Step 3 for pedagogical purposes, as possibly being effective in clarifying any remaining points in dispute. It can be further refined to remove any remaining ambiguities if necessary. Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Assume the computational theory of mind and any necessary technologies for the thought experiment. You are to imagine the following scenario: 1) You volunteer for an experiment which entails your entering a laboratory in Helsinki and receiving a general anaesthetic. The unscrupulous experimenters have not told you, nor have you any other means of knowing, that while you are unconscious they intend to make a digital copy of you and transmit this to both Moscow and Washington. After successfully acquiring the copy, and before you have regained consciousness, they destroy your body by total incineration at 1000 degrees. 2) Your copies are later successfully reconstituted separately in both Moscow and Washington, in rooms with large picture windows overlooking the distinctive panoramas of each city, showing either the onion domes of Red Square or the Washington Monument. Before long, in each venue, each copy regains consciousness and looks out of the window. Your task now is to describe the sequence of events you expect to experience in real time in this scenario, from the point where you enter the laboratory in Helsinki and subsequently. For example, your account might begin: "I am lying down on a couch now and am about to receive an anaesthetic injection". If you consider that the scenario as stipulated does not afford you the possibility of further subjective experience beyond this juncture, perhaps owing to the subsequent destruction of your body, simply terminate your account. Alternatively, if you consider that some subjectively describable continuation of experience is possible, continue to give an account of this as though in real time: for example "I am awake now and looking out of the window Gosh, look at those domes! I seem to have travelled to Moscow while I was unconscious! What have those unscrupulous doctors done to me?". You are NOT to make use of ANY information of which you would actually have been ignorant, in the lived situation as stipulated, or alternatively describe the situation from the perspective of an external observer. At all points it is solely your lived experience during the scenario as described that is the topic of interest. Do not forget that throughout the scenario the assumptions of CTM are stipulated. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
