Re: Belief Statements

From: John M <jamikes.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 10:31:07 -0500

> Stathis Papaioannou writes:
> > Here is another irrational belief I hold, while I'm confessing. I am
> > absolutely convinced that continuity of personal identity is a kind of
> > illusion. If I were to be painlessly killed every second and immediately
> > replaced by an exact copy, with all my memories, beliefs about being me,
> > etc., I would have no way of knowing that this was happening, and indeed
I
> > believe that in a sense this IS happening, every moment of my life. Now,
> > suppose I am offered the following deal. In exchange for $1 million
> > deposited in my bank account, tonight I will be killed with a sharp axe
in
> > my sleep, and in the morning a stranger will wake up in my bed who has
been
> > brainwashed and implanted with all my memories at my last conscious
moment.
> > This stranger will also have had plastic surgery so that he looks like
me,
> > and he will then live life as me, among other things spending the $1
million
> > which is now in my bank account.

Stathis:
Would YOU stay alive to observe? or would your self- (ego) also merge into
that 'stranger' in which case IT IS YOU, not a stranger?

(Such exchanges (much less perfect) occurs when someone is steeling your
Social Security # and/or internet passwords (ha ha).
Your thought experiment is neither so thought, nor so strange.)

EPR was a better one.

John Mikes
Received on Fri Jan 14 2005 - 11:09:08 PST