On 1/10/2015 4:08 pm, Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
On 30 Sep 2015, at 10:10 PM, Bruce Kellett <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
That is irrelevant to the point being made. I was talking about
purported copies far outside our present particle horizon -- beyond
any possibility of physical influence either way. I contend that
applying the words "psychologically continuous" in this context is
simply meaningless. Psychological continuity is dependent on physical
continuity -- even if only in the transfer of a memory stick from one
computer to another. If there is no physical interaction of any kind,
particularly if such interaction is physically impossible, then the
two persons are different, and have nothing other than a chance
resemblance. Nothing that happens to one can have any effect on the
other.
Consequently, I maintain that the idea of psychological continuity
over and above physical continuity is meaningless.
God could resurrect you using knowledge of your brain state prior to
death, or by exhaustively reconstructing every possible human state,
of which yours is one. In the latter case there would be no causal
connection. How would you know the difference in order to complain to
God that he did not maintain psychological continuity for you?
How would you determine that the reconstruction was "you" and that you
are not dreaming?
Many worlds is nothing more than a hypothetical construct. There is
no concrete evidence one way or the other. And science goes with the
evidence -- in the absence of any evidence we have to say that we
simply do not know. Many worlds ideas are not without their problems,
so it is by no means clear that such scenarios have any intrinsic
advantage. If the worlds are non-interacting, as almost certainly is
the case, then they have absolutely no consequences for psychology or
the problem of consciousness.
You misunderstand what "psychological continuity" means. It can occur
despite a lack of physical interaction.
I understand what you mean by "psychological continuity". I simply
maintain that such a concept makes no sense between conscious beings
outside each others light cones. If there can be no physical
interaction, then there is no continuity, psychological or otherwise.
Duplication of a person, even an entirely emulated AIs, requires a
physical transfer of information. Information is physical, and its
transfer is subject to physical laws. You can't circumvent this by
inventing some magical concept of "psychological continuity".
Bruce
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