tronvillain

I am aware that it would be impossible to track down the original atoms - I was just making a point. In fact, it was the very same point you just made.

bluefugue

FYI, AI guru Ray Kurzweil ponders this sort of question in an essay <a href="http://www.edge.org/q2002/q_kurzweil.html" target="_blank">here</a>.

hedonologist

You were the only one I noticed who directly answered the question (from the subjective viewpoint).

You also "need" surgery, but you feel like you are in optimal heath. If you don't get surgery you know that you will painlessly, suddenly drop dead in a month. You've got $48,000 in the bank, it costs 30,000 either to send a your copy to Mars or to get the surgery. The copy that goes to Mars can be synthesized without the condition requiring surgery, so he won't be identical but his brain will. Mars is warm and fertile under a huge pressurized dome and has just about everything but the big moon and the extra gravity. Anyone you ask will agree to send their copy there with you if you want, and you can also copy any possessions you have or even the ocean or the whole planet, hehe. You would know better than I how long you would want to stay should you decide to go.

tronvillain

Am I imagining things, or did you drastically change your original post?

tronvillain

Under those conditions, I'd probably opt for Mars.

hedonologist

Umm probably. I don't remember. Sorry if I did and people missed it.
OK, if we are understanding each other you are what I think of as a "materialist", and this is the sense in which I am a "mind-body dualist".

In that scenario you go sit down in an lab, a machine instantly scans the position of all your molecules, and sends the signal to Mars, where a copy of you is made, and the employees come back in the room and say it was successful and that your copy is on the holographic phone wanting to talk to you. You sill have the disease but your copy doesn't. It doesn't bother you that you will drop dead in a month, because you know that this copy exists?

Titan

Sorry, didn't mean to post this.

[ February 17, 2002: Message edited by: Titan ]</p>

tronvillain

hedonologist:
Actually, I'm not sure we are understanding each other at all, but if you find those labels convenient, then by all means use them.

I have to look at it in terms of the "I" who makes the decision and is copied - from his perspective, both the "original" and the "copy" are his future selves. He has a choice between a future self living on Mars while a future self dies on Earth, and a future self living on Earth. He must determine whether having a future self dying on Earth is worth having a future self live on Mars.

Obviously how the future self who is going to die on Earth will feel about dying will be a relevant consideration. In my case, the existence of my other self would be of comfort, and a painless death is not such a terrible thing. So, I choose Mars. I will mourn myself when I die, and then I will get on with the task of living.

[ February 17, 2002: Message edited by: tronvillain ]</p>

crocodile deathroll

I just had a thought
To replicate and exact copy of yourself you may also have the make an exact copy of the physical environment to replicate the same sensory inputs. But there probably is already many identical copies through the inflationary cosmos, which would only differ by the position of one electron. So you will also be on what appears to you to be an identical earth paralleling the same thought processes.
My theory is: this could be a good explanation for the belief we exhibit "free will" as free will is just a gestalt switch from one of your identical copies to another one where there is a very subtle variation in particle history and phase space in those plethora earths "youselves" and the parallel brains that each copy of yourself exist in identical earth.

You only have to look at our own Sun, singular a G2 main sequence star rich in iron. How far would you have to travel in space to find another iron rich G2 main sequence star. Proxima Centurii is a red dwarf which is not even close. Alpha Centurii A is pretty close but is on one on a known three star system. The Sun is a solitary star. Tau Ceti may be a G8 but with much searching you may find one reasonably close within about 50 light years.
By al means still not a perfect match but at least it qualifies as a G2 main sequence star. Go to 500 hundred light you may even find one with nine planets (none with life) but at least that is a start. At five thousand light years you may even discover one with life. Billions of light years!, could be intelligent life who knows. The observable universe would still be no where near big enough to generate to two identical earths just by chance but the for inflationary cosmos which (if the theory is right) is exponentially larger than our observable universe and as such this seemingly improbable task would be a pushover. The observable universe is but a cosmic bubble minute fraction of the true size of the universe. So then far beyond our cosmic bubble maybe 10^10^12 light years away there is another one that is nearly identical right down to an identical copy our yourself with an identical brain on an identical Earth.

crocodile deathroll

eowynn

If I understand what is being said, the option has been presented that you are dying of an incurable disease on Earth, so you transport a copy of yourself to Mars, minus that defect that is killing you on Earth. My question would be this: where does your consciousness reside? What I mean by this is that you would only be able to "see" the world through one pair of eyes. Essentially, the copy is like a twin sister, it is not really you. I, however, would still opt to send a copy to Mars.