Related to this idea of space, is maybe asking “why am I me, and not someone else?”.
The question in quotes is obviously nonsense, but I think it can get quite confusing, especially if we start assuming that people can be replicated (perhaps using digital copies). If you are one of 5 copies of a digital personality, does it make sense for you to be grateful you are not a different one of those copies? The world would not in any mechanical way be different if you were one of the copies and they were you. So it becomes complicated to think about because it seems to imply that two mechanically identical universes can be subjectively different for “me” (for some value of “me”).
The time question in the original post I think it kind of equivalent. They are sort of thinking that their are many, many “me”‘s at different times, all with different experiences. But that I am right now only one of those “me”’s. What is special about that one that it is the one that I am experiencing right now.
Related to this idea of space, is maybe asking “why am I me, and not someone else?”.
The question in quotes is obviously nonsense, but I think it can get quite confusing, especially if we start assuming that people can be replicated (perhaps using digital copies). If you are one of 5 copies of a digital personality, does it make sense for you to be grateful you are not a different one of those copies? The world would not in any mechanical way be different if you were one of the copies and they were you. So it becomes complicated to think about because it seems to imply that two mechanically identical universes can be subjectively different for “me” (for some value of “me”).
The time question in the original post I think it kind of equivalent. They are sort of thinking that their are many, many “me”‘s at different times, all with different experiences. But that I am right now only one of those “me”’s. What is special about that one that it is the one that I am experiencing right now.