I have a similar opinion to Alicorn’s, but I would not use the term ‘remember.’ In the case of dissociative amnesia, there is a mind-moment which retains all my skills and all my general preferences, from which preferences about specific things could, in principle, be reconstructed. Thus, that mind-moment is much more similar to my current one than it is to a randomly-selected human mind, let alone a randomly-selected arrangement of the same mass.
Amnesia has the advantage that there’s still a person around who my friends and family can (partially) recognize as me. Still, there perhaps should be less of a gulf between my reactions to (permanent, near-total) amnesia and to death.
Or, if not amnesia, than a stronger version of it. Maybe amnesia plus being dropped in an alien universe; one that has no history in common with ours, despite being ideal for you in every other way.
Do you consider amnesia as bad as death?
No. I vastly prefer that minds derived from me remember being me, but it is better that a mind exist which is fairly similar to me than none at all.
I have a similar opinion to Alicorn’s, but I would not use the term ‘remember.’ In the case of dissociative amnesia, there is a mind-moment which retains all my skills and all my general preferences, from which preferences about specific things could, in principle, be reconstructed. Thus, that mind-moment is much more similar to my current one than it is to a randomly-selected human mind, let alone a randomly-selected arrangement of the same mass.
Amnesia has the advantage that there’s still a person around who my friends and family can (partially) recognize as me. Still, there perhaps should be less of a gulf between my reactions to (permanent, near-total) amnesia and to death.
That advantage doesn’t seem fundamental. How about amnesia plus being dropped in a eutopian alien universe?
If this is full amnesia (both procedural and declarative memory), yes. It’s as bad as killing me and replacing me with a clone.
Or, if not amnesia, than a stronger version of it. Maybe amnesia plus being dropped in an alien universe; one that has no history in common with ours, despite being ideal for you in every other way.