On Jun 28, 2007, at 7:35 PM, Tom McCabe wrote:
You're assuming again that consciousness is conserved.
I have no idea why you think so. I would say that I think that each copy is conscious only of their own particular existence, and if that's what you mean by "consciousness is conserved", I suppose I'd agree with it. Your alternative requires some new, interesting physics to explain how a single brain can be conscious of input it's not receiving.
If you go into the machine full of magical sticky consciousness stuff, and that stuff can only be present in one body at any given time, then sure, when you wake up, the probability of you waking up in box A is 50% and the probability of waking up in box B is 50%. But if you assume that consciousness comes only from information content, then you don't just wake up once- you wake up 1024 times. The chance of you waking up in box A is 100%, since it's guaranteed that 512 copies will be in box A. The chance of you waking up in box B is also 100%, since 512 copies are also guaranteed to be in box B. These discontinuities- going to sleep once and waking up one thousand and twenty-four times- are really confusing, and I think
Huh? Any one person would have a personal history of going to sleep 10 times, and waking up 10 times. His history might be of waking up each time in the B box, or of waking up each time in the A box, but more likely, of some combination of boxes. If you follow the "more likely" there, I've made my point.
it works better to look at it from the perspective of the guy doing the upload rather than the guy being uploaded.
That just begs the question, though.
If you magically inserted yourself into the brain of a copy at random, then you're right- you'd have an equal chance of waking up in A or B. But to say "you" have an equal chance of waking up in A or B is nonsensical, because "you" as a singular person doesn't exist anymore. You can only talk about "you" when referring to events before the copying- if you try to refer to "you" to describe what happens after the copying, your brain will barf as there are 1024 possible references for the word.
Pick one. Ask him whether he remembers waking up 10 times or 1024. If 10, then he had a 50% chance each time of waking up in the A box. If 1024, then your "magickal consciousness stuff" is real, and I've got no clue. I strongly doubt he'll remember all 1024 awakenings. -- Randall Randall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "If we have matter duplicators, will each of us be a sovereign and possess a hydrogen bomb?" -- Jerry Pournelle ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=4007604&user_secret=7d7fb4d8
