Teleportation

Q. If you took every atom in your body, with its current position, momentum, and all relevant quantum numbers, and made an exact copy of it (in essence, made an exact physical replication of yourself, including brain synapses), would you get another you?

A. It's not possible because of quantum.

Q. Suppose it was.

A. Bang! You created you in the same position. Fundamental particles don't overlap like that.

Q. OK, suppose I made the copy in australia or something.

A. Ouch. "You're" moving sideways at 1000mph.

Q. Gah! You know what I mean.

A. Right. Well, the word "you" hasn't been designed for this circumstance, so whether it applies is a matter of personal preference. As for more specific comparisons...

Q. Would it look, act, and to all tests man can devise (except for starting from a different place) be the same as me?

A. Sure. I don't see how not. AFAIK phsiology, thoughts, memories, etc are all expressions your matter. Of course, from that point on, it would develop into a different individual with common experience. A significantly different life could make you both quite different. But only how you would be if you had his life.

Q. But what about a soul?

A. How would someone without a soul act differently? If they affect matter, how come we've never observed it? If not, how can you tell whether any or all people do have souls?

Q. What if the soul influences quantum events we see as truly random to produce macroscopic effects like causing or preventing love?

A. Hmmm, let me get back to you about that.

Q. But... God...

A. How do we have souls? I think anything that can be called a soul is just a fundamental bit of our mind, ie. how our brain is arranged. I think this is exceptionally magical: that something as simple as atoms can come together to form something as amazing as a mind. Pretending a supernatural cause seems to cheapen it to me. But then, I enjoy understanding rainbows (except I don't.) But If souls are caused by God, or by a natural consequence of the creation of a "person", I would expect the copy would also be issued one.

Anyway, questions I'm puzzled by:

1. How do so many people think it wouldn't be you, without any sense of that means? Do people think it doesn't have a soul? Can you describe what that would mean?

2. Could the soul influence quantum events we see as truly random to produce macroscopic effects like causing or preventing love? This is consistent, if silly. I loved it in miss_next's story. Does anyone propose this seriously?

3. Does anyone think if God made souls, or if they're formed by a natural but metaphysical process, a copy wouldn't get one? How about a clone? A twin?

Personal aspect of telecopying me

But suppose there was another me. What would it be like? It's a staple of comedy (and tragedy) fiction, though often not explored as fully as it could be.

* I was reading some of my lj archive and old fiction yesterday. It was instructive: I laughed at reading things, I enjoyed my writing (bar the occasional big cringe). We would probably enjoy writing and beta'ing for each other.

* Would we like each other? We'd probably have some great conversations. OTOH, we'd probably really annoy each other, and see each other as smarmy little gits who get all the dates. And perhaps keep trying to occupy the same niche in friendship groups. Or maybe separate, and have different friends, because there's too many people I like and I don't have time to be friends with them all. I probably wouldn't fancy him, but might cause some people to squee *enormously* if we kissed.

* We could work very well together, understanding just what we meant. A few of me could probably form a really successful company, especially if one or two can be persuade to concentrate on other specialities like management and finance. We'd always know what the other was doing, and not argue and aims and strategy and coding style. It'd be cool.

Meme: Well, if you want, copy this and think about your clone.

Duplication poll

Amongst people who would teleport:

Suppose you can duplicate yourself somewhere you want to be, and then destroy yourself instantly and painlessly; or we live in a matrix and you can duplicate your process and shut down the old one; or your brain has a perfect back up which can be brought back if you die; would you?

Yes
Yes, but I don't know if I'd have the nerve
No
I would in theory, but in practice there'd be too great a risk something would go wrong.
I can't answer because I think any teleporting or backup wouldn't contain my soul. I may have checked another answer as what I would do if I didn't.
Comments: