Re: [Fwd: NDPR David Shoemaker, Personal Identity and Ethics: A Brief Introduction]

From: Bruno Marchal <marchal.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2009 12:18:12 +0100

Le 05-mars-09, à 11:10, Günther Greindl a écrit :

>
> HI Bruno,
>
>>>> Indeed, that would be like if a number could make disappear another
>>>> number. Even a God cannot do that!
>>> The idea would be rather that some continuations would correspond
>>> to non-existent numbers, like, say, the natural number between 3 and
>>> 4.
>>
>> I am not sure I understand. If the continuation uses non existent
>> numbers, the continuation does not exist, or it is an inconsistent
>> continuation, that is a cul-de-sac world. I can prove that 0 = 1, if
>> there is a natural number between 3 and 4.
>> A god cannot make disappear a natural number, nor introduce a natural
>> number where there is none. It seems to me.
>
> We are just talking a little past each other. To recap:
>
> I initially meant that it would be possible, in a teleportation
> experiment, that aliens prevent any copies from being instantiated.
>
> You then said that that would be equivalent to making disappear a
> number, which is not possible.
>
> My idea was rather that the instantiations would not correspond to
> numbers in the first place

But that would violate the comp assumption.



> - that is why the aliens could destroy the
> machine (it follows from 3-det that something _had_ to happen to
> prevent
> successor states which wouldn't correspond to numbers).


But machines are secondary. The "physical machines" are pattern
emerging in the mind of persons themselves emerging from the relation
between numbers. I don't see how aliens could manage a machine not to
have successors.



>
> So, of course nobody can introduce new numbers - but if there were
> successor states which would require new numbers, that would mean that
> QI is false - there a cul de sacs (modus tollens).

If a successor state requires something impossible, *that* successor
state will be impossible, but it does not mean there will not be other
successor states, indeed, for mind corresponding on machine's state, a
continuum of successor states exists.

Best,

Bruno



http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/


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Received on Thu Mar 05 2009 - 06:18:50 PST

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