Continuity of existence
May. 10th, 2011 10:28 pmA question oft posed in science fiction and amateur philosophy is what constitutes continuity of my existence. That is, when I'm saying "I want to do blah to achieve blah" what counts as "I" for this purpose?
A typical science-fictional spectrum of options is something like:
1. Myself, 5 seconds from now
2. Myself, after I sleep
3. Myself, 20 years from now
4. If you destructively and exhaustively scanned my body at the atomic level and then reassembled it from new atoms so it functioned the same.
5. If you destructively and exhaustively scanned my body at the atomic (or maybe only neuron) level and then simulated it in a sufficiently accurate simulation in a really really accurate computer.
6. If you found the series of simple encodings of the successive simulation states of #5 embedded in the binary digits of pi[1].
Greg Egan and Schlock Mercenary provide decent examples of several.
( Read more... )
A typical science-fictional spectrum of options is something like:
1. Myself, 5 seconds from now
2. Myself, after I sleep
3. Myself, 20 years from now
4. If you destructively and exhaustively scanned my body at the atomic level and then reassembled it from new atoms so it functioned the same.
5. If you destructively and exhaustively scanned my body at the atomic (or maybe only neuron) level and then simulated it in a sufficiently accurate simulation in a really really accurate computer.
6. If you found the series of simple encodings of the successive simulation states of #5 embedded in the binary digits of pi[1].
Greg Egan and Schlock Mercenary provide decent examples of several.
( Read more... )