If your future selves A and B will both exist, what could possibly be the difference between being only future self A and being only future self B?
I know that I am me and you are not me, because (for example) when I want to pick up the pencil on the table between us my arm moves and yours doesn’t.
Future self A can perform that experiment to determine that he is not also future self B. B can also do that with respect to A.
Thus, the anticipation of being both future self A and future self B does not correlate to any particular experience anyone is going to have.
I think you misunderstand me. Future you A is future you A, and not future you B, and likewise future you B is not future you A. No particular you will ever experience being A and B at the same time. Future you A and B both remember being current you, but not being each other. I completely agree with all that. What I don’t understand is how either A or B is supposed to be you in the sense of being the same person as current you while the other is not?
I’m not claiming that A and B have to consider each other to be the same person. That would be a possibility, but they/you could also treat being the same person as non-transitive so each is the same person as current you (C), but they aren’t the same person to each other, or A, B and C could consider themselves three different persons. The only thing that doesn’t make sense to me is C going on to be either A or B, as determined by random chance (??? where would that randomness be happening?) or … something? I don’t even sufficiently understand how this is supposed to work to properly describe it.
What I don’t understand is how either A or B is supposed to be you in the sense of being the same person as current you while the other is not?
A will probably call A the real you, and B will probably call B the real you. Other people might find them both the same as the current you, but might take sides on the labeling issue later if A or B does something they like or don’t like. It’d surely be most useful to call both A and B “the same person as current you” in the beginning, at least, because they’d both be extremely similar to the current you. A might change more than B as time goes on, leading some to prefer identifying B as the “real” you (possibly right away, to dissipate the weirdness of it all), but it’s all a matter of preference in labels. After all, even now the you that is reading this post is not the same as the you of 5 minutes ago. English simply isn’t well-equipped to deal with the situation where a person can have multiple future selves (at least, not yet).
William T. Riker was copied and his copy (hereafter “Thomas Riker”) was abandoned all alone on a planet. Will Riker had friends and a career history since the copy, so for convenience Thomas Riker took the name “Thomas” and continued his old career where he left off.
I know that I am me and you are not me, because (for example) when I want to pick up the pencil on the table between us my arm moves and yours doesn’t.
Future self A can perform that experiment to determine that he is not also future self B. B can also do that with respect to A.
Thus, the anticipation of being both future self A and future self B does not correlate to any particular experience anyone is going to have.
I think you misunderstand me. Future you A is future you A, and not future you B, and likewise future you B is not future you A. No particular you will ever experience being A and B at the same time. Future you A and B both remember being current you, but not being each other. I completely agree with all that. What I don’t understand is how either A or B is supposed to be you in the sense of being the same person as current you while the other is not?
I’m not claiming that A and B have to consider each other to be the same person. That would be a possibility, but they/you could also treat being the same person as non-transitive so each is the same person as current you (C), but they aren’t the same person to each other, or A, B and C could consider themselves three different persons. The only thing that doesn’t make sense to me is C going on to be either A or B, as determined by random chance (??? where would that randomness be happening?) or … something? I don’t even sufficiently understand how this is supposed to work to properly describe it.
A will probably call A the real you, and B will probably call B the real you. Other people might find them both the same as the current you, but might take sides on the labeling issue later if A or B does something they like or don’t like. It’d surely be most useful to call both A and B “the same person as current you” in the beginning, at least, because they’d both be extremely similar to the current you. A might change more than B as time goes on, leading some to prefer identifying B as the “real” you (possibly right away, to dissipate the weirdness of it all), but it’s all a matter of preference in labels. After all, even now the you that is reading this post is not the same as the you of 5 minutes ago. English simply isn’t well-equipped to deal with the situation where a person can have multiple future selves (at least, not yet).
Good point. Fictional example:
William T. Riker was copied and his copy (hereafter “Thomas Riker”) was abandoned all alone on a planet. Will Riker had friends and a career history since the copy, so for convenience Thomas Riker took the name “Thomas” and continued his old career where he left off.