In version A, I have a button that non invasively scans my brain and creates 10 perfect copies of my brain state in a computer. I press the button. For an instant, 11 identical mind states exist in the universe. Then each mind starts diverging along different causal chains.
Intuitively, I expect the following:
I won’t experience anything unusual after pressing the button (eg, I won’t wake up in a computer). I will still feel that I am in my physical body, in the room with the button
each of the mind copies will feel that they are the ‘one true version of vlad’ and won’t experience the other minds ‘from the inside’. presumably, they will be surprised to be in a computer and not in the room?
if I shut down the computer and kill the 10 minds, I won’t experience anything unusual
In this case, I identify myself with the embodied mind.
In version B, the setup is identical except the scan is destructive. The second I press it, my physical body is destroyed.
Now, what happens to me? There’s no specific reason for me to end up in one of the minds and not the others. But I cannot go to all 10 minds at the same time — I am a single mind with its own casual chain, not a collection of minds.
For instance, imagine each of the 10 minds is caused to feel a different sensation at the same time. There’s nobody to feel all 10 sensations at the same time because the minds are causally isolated. Yet I cannot say that I am feeling a particular sensation and not the others.
So in version B, I still identify myself with the embodied mind, which is destroyed — hence oblivion. Conversely, what happens to the 10 minds if I delete them from the computer? Oblivion.
(This is just my attempt to map my naive intuitions. I have a sense some version of no-self could be the solution, but I’m not there yet. I also feel that naive intuitions fail for Everett branches which is another reason to be suspicious.)
Here’s a thought experiment.
In version A, I have a button that non invasively scans my brain and creates 10 perfect copies of my brain state in a computer. I press the button. For an instant, 11 identical mind states exist in the universe. Then each mind starts diverging along different causal chains.
Intuitively, I expect the following:
I won’t experience anything unusual after pressing the button (eg, I won’t wake up in a computer). I will still feel that I am in my physical body, in the room with the button
each of the mind copies will feel that they are the ‘one true version of vlad’ and won’t experience the other minds ‘from the inside’. presumably, they will be surprised to be in a computer and not in the room?
if I shut down the computer and kill the 10 minds, I won’t experience anything unusual
In this case, I identify myself with the embodied mind.
In version B, the setup is identical except the scan is destructive. The second I press it, my physical body is destroyed.
Now, what happens to me? There’s no specific reason for me to end up in one of the minds and not the others. But I cannot go to all 10 minds at the same time — I am a single mind with its own casual chain, not a collection of minds.
For instance, imagine each of the 10 minds is caused to feel a different sensation at the same time. There’s nobody to feel all 10 sensations at the same time because the minds are causally isolated. Yet I cannot say that I am feeling a particular sensation and not the others.
So in version B, I still identify myself with the embodied mind, which is destroyed — hence oblivion. Conversely, what happens to the 10 minds if I delete them from the computer? Oblivion.
(This is just my attempt to map my naive intuitions. I have a sense some version of no-self could be the solution, but I’m not there yet. I also feel that naive intuitions fail for Everett branches which is another reason to be suspicious.)