From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@rawbw.com)
Date: Mon Mar 10 2008 - 23:03:59 MDT
Stuart writes
> On the whole question of whether your duplicate is really you
> or not, one thing seems to have been missed: there is more to
> who you are than just your memories.
If you and I exchange any given body part (except the brain)
then it's still clear afterwards who you are and who I am. But
suppose that somehow we could exchange cognitive ability,
exchange temperament, and exchange the instinctive
compassion we have for others. What then?
Well, I might find myself suddenly able to think more clearly,
and perhaps find myself emotionally on a much more even
keel a lot of the time, and maybe having intense empathy
and compassion for innocents I see wronged in movies or
in real life.
So what is it that has kept me "me"? I say it's memories.
For, if we suddenly exchanged *memories*, then you would
very suddenly find yourself in a townhouse in Santa Clara
California, needing always two or three pairs of glasses,
having little depth perception because of a weak left eye,
maybe being a lot taller or shorter, or heavier or leaner.
With just the memories exchanged, you might suddenly find
also that you could visualize more easily than before, but that
logic seemed harder, or other things to that effect.
You would *not* say to yourself, "Oh, I guess I'm not Stuart
anymore. I must be someone else." No. You would say
"WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO ME? And what
am I, Stuart, doing here? and why is everything blurry when I
look across the room? Whose body is this? It's not *mine*!"
> If you are duplicated ten times, the most likely outcome is that you
> will lose your partner, your house, your parents, your job, most of
> your possessions, 9/10s of your cash, and most of your friends - all
> in one short instant....
As for the subsequent consequences --- legal fights and so on,
as Robin Lee Powell says, that would depend on your personality.
Each copy would sincerely think that he was Stuart Anderson, and
each of them would be one-hundred percent right!
Lee
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