Re: Uploading: Voluntary Amnesia

mark@unicorn.com
Fri, 21 Aug 1998 03:36:38 -0700 (PDT)

T.R. Fullhart [trf2020@ksu.edu] wrote
>If you believe that a copy of you couldn't commit suicide, then your copy
>would also have that belief, and it will become true.
>If, however, you believe your copy could commit suicide, then your copy
>would also have the same belief, and it will become true.

This is not a copy we're talking about, this is you. Sure, the you is a copy of some other you, but this isn't the original wondering whether a copy of himself will kill itself, but another you having to kill itself after a few hours.

To clarify that statement: there is a very, very big difference between sitting there happily in the duplication machine having decided that the copy will kill itself and knowing that you're safe, and being the copy and deciding to kill yourself. Unless you're already borderline suicidal I can't see you doing it. Most people talk a lot bigger than they act, and the instant the copy realises he's the one slated to die in a few hours he's almost certainly going to have a change of heart.

Mark