Depends on whether they would work by actually moving me through space (using a wormhole or something) or by disintegrating me at point A and creating a copy at point B. In the latter case, I probably wouldn’t use them.
I am thinking of a case where it is ‘disintegration’ and ‘re-integration’, but making use of some physics that prevent making a copy. For example, let’s say that the mechanism relies on a step for which the ‘no-cloning theorem’ applies. In this hypothetical scenario, a commonly held belief is that the inability to make a copy retains the person’s identity. It is a similar logic to how a person remains who they are from childhood and through adulthood despite the atoms that compose them changing over time.
There’s no difference. The universe could be destroying you and recreating you every Planck second, and it’s indistinguishable from continuous existence.
The problem with that line of thought is that even if it is true, it doesn’t apply here, because when you create a perfect copy of yourself, you don’t magically get a shared continuity where you experience the continuity of both the original and the copy. There would now be two independent chains of experience, and even if every chain of experience is endless destruction with continuity just being a trick of memory, there would still be two divergent continuities now, and one of those would end.
True but that’s already happening in theory. All copies would argue they are the original even if their futures diverge. None would think otherwise or have an experience any different than our moment to moment continuity as it stands now. That’s only apparent to a 3rd party.
Except in the case of teleportation, one of them is stopped after the other has started. For ease of making my point clearer, lets say it takes a few seconds after teleportation to destroy the original.
For those few seconds, there would be two divergent consciousnesses. The original consciousness would not experience the consciousness stream of the copy. It would be left experiencing the inside of the teleporter, and then it would be extinguished. The copy would have access to the memories of the original consciousness, and would infact experience itself as a continuation of that consciousness stream, as would anyone and everyone that interacted with the copy.
But the original consciousness, the one that was copied, briefly existed simultaneously with its copy, yet distinct from it, before being extinguished.
Even if you believe that every moment of life is some version of that, where our experience of continued consciousness is not real, where we are “reconstituted” continuously as new versions, with only shared access to memory letting us perceive it as continuous, the teleporter still creates a second stream simultaneously with the first, before ending the first. You have a sense of self that is consistent and continuous. Even if you are recreated constantly, that is not how its experienced. You still fear death, injury, sickness etc, because you perceive those things as impacting you and your future experiences. You place value on your perceived continuation. And the teleporter breaks that, because there is no longer a perceived continuation for the original, only for the copy. And unless the act of copying spreads perceived consciousness across both streams simultaneously, one stream is going to experience its end.
It’s a fascinating thought experiment. We can know that’s what actually happens, but I believe the teleported copy would not report it as such, and the destroyed copy does not know the difference to report its destruction. Even with multiple copies, I’d bet they would all report a continuous consciousness experience. If we take away the mysticism surrounding afterlife mythos, we’re left with some pretty strange conclusions about what it means to exist, be conscious, and be an individual.
Depends on whether they would work by actually moving me through space (using a wormhole or something) or by disintegrating me at point A and creating a copy at point B. In the latter case, I probably wouldn’t use them.
Yeah, I’d risk it walking through a Stargate, but the Enterprise transporter can fuck all the way off.
Like a solid 4th of trek episodes involve some sort of transporter malfunction. I’m not getting in one either.
Only Stargate canonically disintegrates and then reintehrates you.
trek did too and by the most strict canonical definitions there ever have been in star trek too.
We see their perspective though in an episode. It transports and preserves your consciousness somehow. You apparently even see lights.
I am thinking of a case where it is ‘disintegration’ and ‘re-integration’, but making use of some physics that prevent making a copy. For example, let’s say that the mechanism relies on a step for which the ‘no-cloning theorem’ applies. In this hypothetical scenario, a commonly held belief is that the inability to make a copy retains the person’s identity. It is a similar logic to how a person remains who they are from childhood and through adulthood despite the atoms that compose them changing over time.
There’s no difference. The universe could be destroying you and recreating you every Planck second, and it’s indistinguishable from continuous existence.
The problem with that line of thought is that even if it is true, it doesn’t apply here, because when you create a perfect copy of yourself, you don’t magically get a shared continuity where you experience the continuity of both the original and the copy. There would now be two independent chains of experience, and even if every chain of experience is endless destruction with continuity just being a trick of memory, there would still be two divergent continuities now, and one of those would end.
True but that’s already happening in theory. All copies would argue they are the original even if their futures diverge. None would think otherwise or have an experience any different than our moment to moment continuity as it stands now. That’s only apparent to a 3rd party.
From the perspective of a 3rd party, it’s a technicality. From the perspective of the original continued consciousness, it’s not.
They would both have the exact same continued consciousness, that only diverges later. Only an outside party can tell there are 2 separate lineages.
Except in the case of teleportation, one of them is stopped after the other has started. For ease of making my point clearer, lets say it takes a few seconds after teleportation to destroy the original.
For those few seconds, there would be two divergent consciousnesses. The original consciousness would not experience the consciousness stream of the copy. It would be left experiencing the inside of the teleporter, and then it would be extinguished. The copy would have access to the memories of the original consciousness, and would infact experience itself as a continuation of that consciousness stream, as would anyone and everyone that interacted with the copy.
But the original consciousness, the one that was copied, briefly existed simultaneously with its copy, yet distinct from it, before being extinguished.
Even if you believe that every moment of life is some version of that, where our experience of continued consciousness is not real, where we are “reconstituted” continuously as new versions, with only shared access to memory letting us perceive it as continuous, the teleporter still creates a second stream simultaneously with the first, before ending the first. You have a sense of self that is consistent and continuous. Even if you are recreated constantly, that is not how its experienced. You still fear death, injury, sickness etc, because you perceive those things as impacting you and your future experiences. You place value on your perceived continuation. And the teleporter breaks that, because there is no longer a perceived continuation for the original, only for the copy. And unless the act of copying spreads perceived consciousness across both streams simultaneously, one stream is going to experience its end.
It’s a fascinating thought experiment. We can know that’s what actually happens, but I believe the teleported copy would not report it as such, and the destroyed copy does not know the difference to report its destruction. Even with multiple copies, I’d bet they would all report a continuous consciousness experience. If we take away the mysticism surrounding afterlife mythos, we’re left with some pretty strange conclusions about what it means to exist, be conscious, and be an individual.
So confident about something we aren’t even remotely close to understanding