All this discussion reminds me of the old line twins sometimes use
when some wit asks them, "How do you tell each other apart?"
"Well, I'm always here, but the other one is sometimes gone."
Well, I don't know about the rest of you zombies, and maybe I'm missing
something, but to me it doesn't really matter (at least as it pertains
to this) if the universe is discrete or smooth, infinite or finite,
analog or digital. And it doesn't really matter if machines can be
built that pass the Turing test, have emotions and self-circuits and
problems with the wife and all the rest. And if a simulation of a can
opener can ever open a can or only simulated cans. And if they duplicated
me on a system that used neurons or neural nets, and whether they called
it a computer or called it something else.
If they duplicated me atom by atom - right down to the electrons in my
self-circuit - he'd still be over THERE, and I'd still be over HERE. And
he could pass all the Turing tests and memory tests, and they could run
him for 9 months to make sure that the chaos goblin doesn't get him. And
he and everybody who knows me could agree that, boy, *they* sure can't
tell the difference. And this would all be very interesting.
But, call me old-fashioned, but the *second* somebody says, "It seems
to have worked. Two things that are identical in all ways are the same
thing. A *IS* A. We might as well dispose of the original..." well, he'll
be over THERE, and *I'll* be out the goddamn door.
Eric