I agree, if there is a continuity of memory, no mater how long some 3-person
duration of unconsiousness might occur,, the "different person" aspect
vanishes. "I am what I remember myslef to be"...
Stephen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stathis Papaioannou" <stathispapaioannou.domain.name.hidden>
To: <dmayes.domain.name.hidden>; <everything-list.domain.name.hidden.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 10:30 PM
Subject: Re: Belief Statements
> On 15/1/05 Danny Mayes wrote:
>
>>To have any sense perception there has to be the passage of an
>>inordinately large amount of time as compared to the smallest units of
>>time available. If each frame of time, the smallest divisible unit if you
>>assume that time is discreet, is a different identity, there would be no
>>perception. So you must expand the time frame out to at least a "moment,"
>>which I'll define as the time for a passing thought. However, all of this
>>seems nonsense to me. Where is the cuttoff point that you become a
>>"different" person?
>
> It's easy to get confused over the meaning of terms like "different
> person" here. The basic idea I am trying to get across is that if a person
> or other conscious entity is destroyed and after a certain time period is
> (to an arbitrary level of fidelity) reconstructed, perhaps fom a different
> source of matter, then in general there is no way for that person to know
> that he hasn't just had a period of unconsciousness whilst still remaining
> the "same" person.
>
> Many would be shocked at the prospect of going through the above process,
> fearing that it would actually amount to being killed and then replaced by
> a deluded imposter. Literally, I suppose this is true. We could also argue
> about whether we should say that the original person has "survived" the
> process, or whether the pre- and post-reconstruction versions are
> "identical". This is just semantics. The important point is that the
> normal flow of conscious experience is indistinguishable from / equivalent
> to dying and being replaced by a deluded imposter every moment.
>
> --Stathis Papaioannou
>
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Received on Sun Jan 16 2005 - 00:36:38 PST