On 2/20/2013 8:03 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:
On 20 Feb 2013, at 00:27, meekerdb wrote:
On 2/19/2013 1:58 PM, Jason Resch wrote:
On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 3:39 PM, meekerdb <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
On 2/18/2013 10:49 PM, Jason Resch wrote:
6. Swapping places with someone: In 5 seconds, your mind and consciousness
will
swap with that of some rich and famous person. Let's say Bill Gates. I
hope you
are ready. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. The swap is complete. Bill Gates is now in your
body, with access to your memories and living as you were just before you
got to
reading this sentence, while you are living as a billionaire and enjoying
Bills
bank account. Of course, while you are in his body you only have access
to his
memories. Not only does his wife not notice the switch, but you don't even
notice it. You only have access to Bill's memories now so you do not
realize
anything is awry. Don't worry, everything will be set back how it was, in
3. 2.
1. Welcome back. How was it? Of course, you don't remember. Fortunately,
Bill was
nice enough to read the last few sentences for you and now they have been
placed
into your memory. This shows it is meaningless to say "I wish I could live
as
X", or "experience a day in Y's shoes". For all you know, you already are,
have,
and will.
This, if true, only shows that "you" and "Bill Gates" don't exist apart
from your
bodies and memories, so that it is nonsense to talk of exchanging bodies
and memories.
We agree it is nonsense.
For it to make sense there would have to be a "you" soul and a "Bill
Gates" soul
that switched.
Okay, if no soul involved, then by what means can we talk of you at T1 and you at T2,
when the two are different in terms of memories and material?
There is a problem with any theories of personal identity two individuals at two
different times. Inevitably it comes down to some arbitrary measure of similarity.
There are two alternatives, no-self theories of personal identity, in which you are
nothing but a single observer moment, and universalism, which identifies you with
every conscious entity.
You have been seduced by comp so that you forget the simplest theory - physical
continuity.
Physical continuity entails, very plausibly, computability.
Yes that is very plausible. But I also suspect that comp plus intelligence
entails physics.
Brent
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