Re: Identity

Patrick Wilken (patrickw@cs.monash.edu.au)
Mon, 23 Nov 1998 11:02:50 +1100

At 9:00 AM 23-11-98, hidden wrote:
>
> If I appear in a room with an identical of me in a perfectly symmetrical
> room in a perfectly symmetrical situation, what can I do to label myself
>as >different? i.e. how long will I stay in parallel when are minds are
>no longer
>connected as one.

Given that its a thought experiment you are presumably able to keep the two brains identical indefinitely. However in the real world I would have thought chaotic factors would ensure that the two brains diverged very rapidly. Even if you have two identical brains to begin with small external differences would be enough to ensure divergence. I suspect that even small gravitational differences between the two rooms would be enough. And of course random quantum effects between the two brains would be different which would also lead to divergence.

best, patrick


Patrick Wilken                    http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~patrickw/
Editor:     PSYCHE: An International Journal of Research on Consciousness
Secretary:      The Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/              http://www.phil.vt.edu/ASSC/