RE: Duplicates are Selves

From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Tue Apr 01 2003 - 18:17:19 MST

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    Lee Corbin wrote,
    > > You're supposed to MOVE from point A to point B, not COPY
    > > yourself from point A to point B.
    >
    > What the hell is the difference? (Except that copying is non-
    > destructive, whereas moving is.)

    Ahhh, the old argument returns. I have reduced this debate thusly in my own
    mind:

    Some people want to avoid being destroyed. Destructive copying still
    results the destruction they wish to avoid. They do not believe that a
    duplicate copy somewhere else mitigates their death. Their death is exactly
    the same whether there is a copy or not.

    Other people want to preserve some attributes of themselves. Destructive
    copying makes sure that those attributes exist somewhere else when the
    original dies. Therefore their desired attributes are preserved and avoids
    the destruction. The surviving attributes are exactly the same whether
    there is a copy or not.

    "What is the difference?" Semantics, I think. Each side of the debate has
    different goals for what they are trying to achieve. They all call their
    various goals with the same label of "survival", which confuses us into
    assuming that there is one answer as to whether it is achieved or not in any
    hypothetical operation. But actually, I think each person has different
    goals. Therefore the real answer is that different operations achieve
    different forms of "survival" that are acceptable to different people for
    different goals.

    Both sides have two results which they compare as exactly identical and for
    which the other side can't explain "the difference" to convince them to
    change their mind. The pro-destructive-copy people compare the before and
    after copies as being identical and can't see any difference to make them
    change their mind. The anti-destructive-people compare the dead person in
    the copy scenario with the dead person in the non-copy scenario, and can't
    see any difference to make them change their mind. Both are correct in
    their viewpoint for their own goals, and no argument for a different
    procedure that doesn't meet their goals will change their mind. Only
    changing their criteria goals will convince anybody to change their mind.

    --
    Harvey Newstrom, CISSP, IAM, GSEC
    <www.HarveyNewstrom.com>
    


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