The argument weak point detector is quite strong with this one :). Well, I was leaning on Parfit's reasoning that on a Reductionist view of identity, such distinctions would be arbitrary. But we could for instance divide memories into essential and superfluous categories and pretend we could divine the difference between the two. Addition or loss of an essential memory changes identity, while the same for a superfluous memory does not. It does seem that without sophisticated brain scanning equipment you could not know the facts of your identity--a body might lose or gain an essential memory without the resulting person *realizing* it. The facts of identity might not follow the phenomenology of identity. Of course, the fact that a simple change of one memory could alter identity makes all these law enforcement evasion strategies by memory transfer that much easier.
On Sunday, April 26, 2015, Russell Standish <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sun, Apr 26, 2015 at 01:50:47PM -0700, Dennis Ochei wrote: > > indeed. The memory criterion reveals itself to be problematic the moment > > you consider partial transfers. If you transfer all my memories, we've > > decided, per the criterion, that I would wake up at the destination. But > > what if you transferred all but one memory? 75%? 50%? Via the sorites > > paradox, you'd have to conclude that a null transfer still allows you to > > wake up in the new body. Or you could conclude there is some critical > > percentage where you go from not arriving to arriving in the new body, > > which is absurd. > > Why is this absurd? What if all your memories are interlinked into > some sort of network, and if you leave out enough memories, a > percolation threshold is crossed, and your identity falls apart? > > -- > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Principal, High Performance Coders > Visiting Professor of Mathematics [email protected] > <javascript:;> > University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/everything-list/xrPfkrIWCWw/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > [email protected] <javascript:;>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > <javascript:;>. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- 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. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
