Re: Can I kill the original?

From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Sun May 07 2000 - 21:16:43 MDT


"John Clark" <jonkc@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> Harvey Newstrom <mail@HarveyNewstrom.com> Wrote:
>
> > I don't want some Harvey Newstromish person to exist in the future.
> >I want *this* current Harvey Newstrom to continue to exist and evolve
> >into the future.
>
> It has been about 24 hours since you wrote those lines, do you have any
reason
> to think that the replacement you dread so much has not already happened?
> How would things be the slightest bit different if they did?

I hope it has. My goal is for my consciousness to continue to grow so that
the future consciousness is more advanced than the past one. Killing it
certainly won't achieve that growth. If my one consciousness grows from
then to now, there is no doubt that this is an advanced version of me.

If the previous consciousness is destroyed and a later advanced
consciousness appears, what is the connection between them? If all my
thoughts are copied, does that make the new being "me"? What about 90% of
my thoughts. What about creating a super-advanced being and just assuming
that I would have evolved into it? What if the new being is just another
person on this list who memorized my posts and starts acting so much like me
that nobody knows I'm gone? Where do we draw the line?

I feel like I am Darrin on "Bewitched". People want to switch actors and
claim that it's the same Darrin. That's all well-and-good, but the original
Darrin is out of the show. I don't want to be out of the show. All of life
is a stage, and I'm one of the actors. I don't want to be thrown off the
set only to have another actor take my role. I want to keep my role.

--
Harvey Newstrom <http://HarveyNewstrom.com>
IBM Certified Senior Security Consultant,  Legal Hacker, Engineer, Research
Scientist, Author.



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