CryoNet #32511

CryoNet - Sat 27 Mar 2010

    #32511: identity & value [Ettinger]

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Message #32511
From: [email protected]
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:49:48 EDT
Subject: identity & value

I don't know why my format is coming through so distorted,
with gaps and blurs.
 
 
Jordan asks, "Why do you deny that the exact copy 
constructed out of organic molecules would not have 
the same value and importance as the original? "
 
 
Value to whom? If you are talking about factual
feelings of importance--how a doomed original would
really feel--then certainly many people would not be
consoled by survival of a copy, although some would,
or say or think they would. If I were told that I would
be "beamed up," even if I  believed the copying could
be done correctly, I would consider it a death sentence.
You apparently would not. How would you feel if you
knew or guessed that in the far future, quite by chance,
in a far galaxy a copy of you would develop? Would
that console you?
 
 
By the way, it is easy to prove that no accurate
simulation of a person will be possible in the
foreseeable future. This is simply because the
laws of physics are not accurately or completely
known, and the simulation necessarily uses the
rules of physics, and the constants of physics,
as currently estimated by the programmer. 
Interpretations of quantum mechanics differ wildly. 
One line of work, string or brane or M theory, uses 
extra dimensions and many parameters, and some 
theorists think there are different laws in different 
parts of the multiverse, or that laws and constants 
may change over time. Whether the competing 
theories differ in important ways we don't yet know 
but it is hard to see how they could not.
 
Robert Ettinger
 
 


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