Doly: Why does fire feel different from ice if perceiving them both is just something done in our minds? They are both “something” done in our minds, but they are different things.
Hopefully: It’s obvious that if you had been a sufficiently different system you WOULD have done differently. With respect to running or not from the orphanage, how different might mean one more or less neuron or might mean 10^10th of your 10^14th synapses had strengths more than 12% greater. With respect to jumping off the cliff it might mean no optic nerve. For falling after having jumped, it might mean not being a balloon or not having befriended the right person who would otherwise have been there to catch you with his whip before you fell very far. It’s also obvious that if your decision could have been different without you being a very different system, especially if a different decision would have been made by someone with identical memories, particularly if they would have identical memories after the fact, then there is an important sense in which they are not to blame. As for what if they could have behaved differently even if they were the same system, such questions seem to show ignorance of what the word “system” means. A system is all the relevant math. Different inputs can’t correspond to different outputs. Of course, in this strong sense of ‘system’ there is also no person distinct from the fire. Still, even a more moderate question such as ‘could a system implementing the algorithm that the billiard ball model of you is best approximated by have acted differently’ shows confusion. A given algorithm does what it does and could not do otherwise. Blame attaches to not being the right algorithm.
Doly: Why does fire feel different from ice if perceiving them both is just something done in our minds? They are both “something” done in our minds, but they are different things.
Hopefully: It’s obvious that if you had been a sufficiently different system you WOULD have done differently. With respect to running or not from the orphanage, how different might mean one more or less neuron or might mean 10^10th of your 10^14th synapses had strengths more than 12% greater. With respect to jumping off the cliff it might mean no optic nerve. For falling after having jumped, it might mean not being a balloon or not having befriended the right person who would otherwise have been there to catch you with his whip before you fell very far. It’s also obvious that if your decision could have been different without you being a very different system, especially if a different decision would have been made by someone with identical memories, particularly if they would have identical memories after the fact, then there is an important sense in which they are not to blame. As for what if they could have behaved differently even if they were the same system, such questions seem to show ignorance of what the word “system” means. A system is all the relevant math. Different inputs can’t correspond to different outputs. Of course, in this strong sense of ‘system’ there is also no person distinct from the fire. Still, even a more moderate question such as ‘could a system implementing the algorithm that the billiard ball model of you is best approximated by have acted differently’ shows confusion. A given algorithm does what it does and could not do otherwise. Blame attaches to not being the right algorithm.