we need to inject the stuff that sets you uniquely apart even from your fellow humans who share your statistically regular quirks: your memories. If the record of your memories is good enough, this should effectively create a person who is so much like you as to be indistinguishable from the original, i.e. restore you.
I put a lot less importance on memory than you do. For instance, if I suffered amnesia and was not conscious of any of my previous experiences, I would still be me. In fact, given the choice between (A) someone who had a completely different past but had my memories transplanted, and (B) me with permanent amnesia, so I’m not consciously aware of any of my past experiences, I care much more about preserving B than A. It’s not clear to my why I should care about my memories put into a ‘blank body’, if that’s even meaningful to talk about without all the lost resonances and connections.
Besides your memory, you have all sorts of unconscious connections that your brain has made over your lifetime, and all sorts of skills, thoughts, and beliefs for which you no longer have the memories. I’ve forgotten a lot more than I know right now, but all those things that I’ve forgotten have distilled down into who I am in a way that’s not necessarily reflected in my memories.
I put a lot less importance on memory than you do. For instance, if I suffered amnesia and was not conscious of any of my previous experiences, I would still be me. In fact, given the choice between (A) someone who had a completely different past but had my memories transplanted, and (B) me with permanent amnesia, so I’m not consciously aware of any of my past experiences, I care much more about preserving B than A. It’s not clear to my why I should care about my memories put into a ‘blank body’, if that’s even meaningful to talk about without all the lost resonances and connections.
Besides your memory, you have all sorts of unconscious connections that your brain has made over your lifetime, and all sorts of skills, thoughts, and beliefs for which you no longer have the memories. I’ve forgotten a lot more than I know right now, but all those things that I’ve forgotten have distilled down into who I am in a way that’s not necessarily reflected in my memories.