If that one bit is swallowed up in later neural computations due to the coarse-grained-ness of the wetware, then we’re back to one person since the two are, once again, functionally identical.
Ack. So if I understand you right, your alternative to bit-for-bit identity is to loosen it to some sort of future similarity, which can depend on future actions and outcomes; or in other words, there’s a radical indeterminacy about even the minds in our example: are they same or are they different, who knows, it depends on whether the Sufism comes out in the wash! Ask me later; but then again, even then I won’t be sure whether those 2 were the same when we started them running (always in motion the future is).
That seems like quite a bullet to bite, and I wonder whether you can hold to any meaningful ‘individual’, whether the difference be bit-wise or no. Even 2 distant non-borderline mindsmight grow into each other.
I wonder whether you can hold to any meaningful ‘individual’, whether the difference be bit-wise or no.
Indeed, that’s what I’m driving at.
Harking back to my earlier comment, changing a single bit and suddenly having a whole new person is where my problem arises. If you change that bit back, are you back to one person? I might not be thinking hard enough, but my intuition doesn’t accept that. With that in mind, I prefer to bite that bullet than talk about degrees of person-hood.
If you change that bit back, are you back to one person? I might not be thinking hard enough, but my intuition doesn’t accept that.
Here’s an intuition for you: you take the number 5 and add 1 to it; then you subtract 1 from it; don’t you have what you started with?
With that in mind, I prefer to bite that bullet than talk about degrees of person-hood.
Well, I can’t really argue with that. As long as you realize you’re biting that bullet, I think we’re still in a situation where it’s just dueling intuitions. (Your intuition says one thing, mine another.)
Ack. So if I understand you right, your alternative to bit-for-bit identity is to loosen it to some sort of future similarity, which can depend on future actions and outcomes; or in other words, there’s a radical indeterminacy about even the minds in our example: are they same or are they different, who knows, it depends on whether the Sufism comes out in the wash! Ask me later; but then again, even then I won’t be sure whether those 2 were the same when we started them running (always in motion the future is).
That seems like quite a bullet to bite, and I wonder whether you can hold to any meaningful ‘individual’, whether the difference be bit-wise or no. Even 2 distant non-borderline mindsmight grow into each other.
Indeed, that’s what I’m driving at.
Harking back to my earlier comment, changing a single bit and suddenly having a whole new person is where my problem arises. If you change that bit back, are you back to one person? I might not be thinking hard enough, but my intuition doesn’t accept that. With that in mind, I prefer to bite that bullet than talk about degrees of person-hood.
Here’s an intuition for you: you take the number 5 and add 1 to it; then you subtract 1 from it; don’t you have what you started with?
Well, I can’t really argue with that. As long as you realize you’re biting that bullet, I think we’re still in a situation where it’s just dueling intuitions. (Your intuition says one thing, mine another.)