On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 11:58 AM, Jason Resch <[email protected]> wrote: > Consider the following thought experiment, called "The Duplicators": > > At 1:00 PM tomorrow, you will be abducted by aliens. The aliens will tell > you not to worry, that you won't be harmed but they wish to conduct some > experiments on the subject of pain, which is unknown to them. These aliens > possess technology far in advance of our own. They have the ability to scan > and replicate objects down to the atomic level and the aliens use this > technology to create an atom-for-atom duplicate of yourself, which they call > you2. The aliens thank you for your assistance and return you unharmed back > to your home by 5:00 PM. You ask them "What about the pain experiments?" and > they hand you an informational pamphlet and quickly fly off. You read the > pamphlet which explains that a duplicate of you (you2) was created and > subjected to some rather terrible pain experiments, akin to what humans call > torture and at the end of the experiment you2 was euthanized. You consider > this awful, but are nonetheless glad that they tortured your duplicate > rather than you. > > Now consider the slightly different thought experiment, called "The > Restorers": > > At 1:00 PM tomorrow, you will be abducted by aliens. Unlike the aliens with > the duplication technology (the duplicators), these aliens possess a > restorative technology. They can perfectly erase memories and all other > physical traces to perfectly restore you to a previous state. The aliens > will tell you not to worry, that you won't be harmed but they wish to > conduct some experiments on the subject of pain, which is unknown to them. > They then proceed to brutually torture you for many hours, conducting test > after test on pain. Afterwards, they erase your memory of the torture and > all traces of injury and stress from your body. When they are finished, you > are atom-for-atom identical to how you were before the torture began. The > aliens thank you for your assistance and return you unharmed back to your > home by 5:00 PM. You ask them "What about the pain experiments?" and they > hand you an informational pamphlet and quickly fly off. You read the > pamphlet which explains that a duplicate of you (you2) was created and > subjected to some rather terrible pain experiments, akin to what humans call > torture and at the end of the experiment you2 was euthenized. You consider > this awful, but are nonetheless glad that they tortured your duplicate > rather than you. > > My questions for the list: > > 1. Do you consider yourself to have experienced the torture in the case of > the Restorers, even though you no longer remember it? If not, why not. > > 2. If yes, do you consider yourself to have experienced the torture in the > case of the Duplicators? If yes, please explain, if not, please explain. > > 3. If you could choose which aliens would abduct you, is there one you would > prefer? If you have a preference, please provide some justification.
The two experiments are equivalent. Rationally, you should not have a preference for either - though both are bad in that you experience pain but then forget it. -- Stathis Papaioannou -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
