RE: continuity of self [ was META: Sept. 11 and Singularity]

From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Fri Sep 13 2002 - 12:24:16 MDT



You seem to be making the observation that the "higher self" (as some have
referred to it) is one and indivisible -- is the same "core self" inside all
of us. This is an age-old mystical observation which has a deep validity to
it.

However, this "higher self" or "deep self" or "raw core of awareness" (First
as Charles Peirce called it) is not the same as the "psychosocial self"
which individuates us and makes us "who we are", in the sense that I am
different from Eliezer, who is different from my friend's housecleaner, etc.

Whether it's valuable to preserve the psychosocial self through uploading is
a valid question, as is the question of *how possible it is* to preserve the
psychosocial self through dramatic transformations.

However, it is also important to be reminded, as your message does, that our
psychosocial selves are not THAT important in the grand scheme of things!!!

-- Ben G

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sl4@sysopmind.com [mailto:owner-sl4@sysopmind.com]On Behalf
> Of Tomaz Kristan
> Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 12:00 PM
> To: sl4@sysopmind.com
> Subject: RE: continuity of self [ was META: Sept. 11 and Singularity]
>
>
> On Fri, 13 September 2002, "Ben Goertzel" wrote:
>
> > I am not sure of the sense in which
> > you're using the word
> > "self" here. It's a slippery one!
>
>
> Tomorrow I will have a lunch. _Myself_ will enjoy it.
>
> What should I upload, to enjoy something (everything) after uploading?
>
> My sense of self - and nothing else. (Everybody* has this same
> sense of self.)
>
> So what if I die first - as Cezar did - what then?
>
> If I have a transload somewhere, and this transload will be
> uploaded - I will be uploaded too!
>
> Who is my transload?
>
> Everybody is.
>
> That's my point. ;-)
>
> - Thomas
>
>
>
>
>
>
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