Being new to extropy, and having just begun thinking about this
subject, I've been trying to decide how I feel about this whole
cloning/uploading/backup thing.
My conclusion is this:
There's no logical reason to believe that there's a substantive
difference between me and my just-restored backup.
There is a subjective sentimentality issue with which I can
empathize. I'm sure that the love and continuity of what we view as
our own bodies and minds are deeply rooted in our evolutionary past.
As a realist, I'm forced to reject that subjective sentimentality and
embrace the possibility of immortality through backup restoration or
uploading or whatever.
My only further question is why the people in this thread so adverse
to backup restoration don't just admit that they're basing their
decision upon a subjective sentimental factor and be done with it in
a somewhat intellectually honest fashion.
Instead, I've seen only the use of equivocation for words like
"consciousness" and "continuity" in some hopeless effort at
maintaining a logical argument.
Regards,
Chris Russo
--
"If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought
or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet
hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance
which does harm."
-- Marcus Aurelius, MEDITATIONS, VI, 21
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