Stathis, List,
> if a backup was made an hour ago, since I (the presently speaking I)
> will not be able to anticipate any future experiences. Only if there
As Bruno said in a previous post, what we should care about in personal
survival is not concrete memories (although memories are essential to
anchor a person in reality) but rather something else (values, insights etc)
In your example, living for an hour will not necessarily accrete much
experience or new insights which you would like to share with your
future self or others. So, indeed, death does not matter (apart from
ethical considerations which are not at issue now, but only personal
identity) for the one hour duplicate, and you can also take the
amnesia-inducing medication.
On the other hand, if you had an insight in exactly that hour: let's
say, you've been working on a scientific problem for ten years, and in
that hour you (the duplicate) saw something which sparked something in
your brain that led you to a solution (and you know it was due to the
extreme situation, and the other you will not have this insight), then
you should worry very much. If you are annihilated, something important
is lost (for yourself, for others).
The issue that we are very reluctant to die if our backup is ten years
old but need not worry so much if we backed up one hour ago is simply
the heuristic that in one hour we don't change so much, but in ten years
we often change so much that we indeed become a very _different_ person.
So, what counts is change, not "objective" time.
What we _are_ is I think more about what we (can) _become_, rather than
a single snapshot at time t_0. And if this becoming is lost, that is the
true tragedy.
Best Wishes,
Günther
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Received on Fri Feb 27 2009 - 16:04:54 PST