Sorry about that ridiculous watermark.
this post was submitted on 25 May 2024
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ITT people who think they’re only themselves only if they’re completely continuous. Any number of them could have been replaced with a clone while sleeping and not know the difference. I am me, and that’s all the matters to me.
Of course I wouldn't know. But the former me who got dragged off is dead. That's the whole point, the clone has no way of knowing and simply continues on life while the original dies.
And because we only exist in the present, we rely on our memories of the past to tell who we are. Our memories tell me I'm me, so I think I'm me.
Maybe it doesn't matter to you, but the reason I don't want to die is because I want to be aware. If I am never conscious again, but a copy of me is, good for them I guess, I wish them the best, but it's not what I want. I'm not conscious of waking up in the morning, even if they're me. I'm dead.
And you would have known you’d been swapped how? What if someone came up to you and said that they have irrefutable proof that you were replaced with a clone of yourself a few years ago. How would you know the difference unless told. And even once told, what does it matter if you can’t pinpoint the exact day?
If it already happened, there's nothing to be done. But if I find out that there's a thing that I'm doing every single day that's killing me and making a copy, I'll simply stop doing that thing
I guess that’s where I’m confused like OP is. What difference does it make at that point? You’ve been going through it countless times, nothing has changed, you were no different, so what does it matter?
It’s like the people that are anti-vaxxers, they’re freaked out with no basis that “it’s changing who I am!” even though there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary (I would assume general transporter tech wouldn’t be available to the masses if it wasn’t in this scenario)
Strictly speaking, I've never used a transporter before. It's important to nail down specific definitions and concepts here. What do I mean when I say I? I'm referring to the human using the alias starman2112; the individual entity typing right now. I've gone more in-depth in other comments, but essentially I am the ongoing chemical reactions between the neurons in my brain. This reaction has been perturbed, interfered with, but never stopped.
In what way am I still "me" after being transported? I'm precisely the same person, right? But I'm not. I'm a perfect copy of the last person. Say the transporter failed to dismantle him when he stepped into it. Does he see what I see? Hear what I hear? No. We are separate people. So if it had dismantled him, would he see what I see, hear what I hear? Still no, of course. He's gone. He doesn't see or hear anything anymore.
Now that I understand that, despite having countless memories of stepping into and out of transporters, how could I possibly bring myself to step into one "again?" In reality, it would be the first time for me, and I would be dooming myself to never see or hear again, unless it malfunctions and fails to dismantle me.
I don't appreciate the comparison with anti-vaxxers. The problems with transporters are not based on lies or incorrect assumptions, it's based on the fact that it kills you and creates a copy.
It only matters in that a person died. A person with their own subjective experience that they no longer get to experience. It doesn't matter that in this case I inherited their memories, and it doesn't matter when it happened other than out of curiosity. I'd mourn them the same.
And as for how I would know... If I'm the clone? Obviously I would never have any way to know, short of someone coming up to me. On the other hand if I were the original, I would "know" because I would be dead. (Or rather, I wouldn't know anything, because the dead don't experience or think)
Edit: It matters that I inherited their memories in that it might influence the way I see the world, my identity, and their death, but it wouldn't change the fact that I mourn them. I am a distinct person from other versions of me, regardless of whether I'm a clone or they're a clone, and if they die it's just as much a tragedy as any other human death.