Would it make a difference if the laws of physics prevent or allow a machine from operating in ‘duplicate’ mode?
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.
Relevant Mini Fantasy Theater
Of course. Fastest travel = best travel.
And the whole “you might die” sounds like big oil propaganda to me. I bet car accident deaths are way more likely.
hmmm, I have to disagree there. Some of my best memories ever were made on trains and boats, during long hauls (at least a day, most often several days).
Might die?
Depending on the method of teleportation, you have to die as part of the process. Star Trek style deconstruction/reconstruction teleportation is death and relife at the destination.
Longer, animated explanation - https://youtu.be/nQHBAdShgYI
But it’s not really the same kind of calculation as the car accident though. It’d be impossible to know if anyone using it ever had died from doing so, so impossible to compare the statistics and the concern is about whether the act of being teleported constitutes dying so depending on the answer to that the odds are either 100% or 0 (unless they have some kind of safety issue with more traditional, visible death or injury that bumps that up to something above 0% but below 100).
If teleportation machines were mainstream, I don’t think they’d be optional for participating in society.
I would. Never understood why people are scared of having their consciousness cut and pasted. I have files from 25+ years ago that have been moved between numerous hdd’s, that’s still the same file. (Always assuming everything works as intended, of course)
It’s never been the same file. It’s been a copy of it. Which is irrelevant in every scenario, and to everyone involved, except from the perspective of the original file, and even then, only if it were conscious.
If we give the original file consciousness for your hypothesis, that consciousness gets duplicated to the copied files, but consciousness doesn’t get removed from the original. And there are now a bunch of distinct consciousness streams, all of which smoothly continue on from the original, but none of which are the original. And if you delete the original, you delete that stream of consciousness, which makes no difference to anyone, except the original consciousness, for which, it’s a cessation of existence.
From the outside, the copy is the same as the original. But from the originals perspective, not so much…
Doesn’t make a difference to me. I get that people seem to see a difference and I am indeed slightly unnerved that I don’t but it is what it is.
The difference is that you’d be dead. There would be a copy of you running around that thinks it is you, but you, your chain of continuity would not be that copy. To literally everyone else, including the copy, you may as well be the original, but the journey from your personal experience would be over. You would be dead and the world would continue on with a copy of your in your place, which you wouldn’t experience.
For all I know I’ve been cut and and pasted 20 times in the last 5 minutes. There’d be no practical difference and I’d feel the same. This is only an issue if you think there’s something like a “soul”.
For me, yes. I like the duplicator transporter thought problem, but I’ve always come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter. If what comes out doesn’t know the difference, and the version left behind just stops existing, what’s the difference? Maybe if the old version suffered from it I wouldn’t, but if they just cease to exist then what’s the functional difference between the two? If you believe there’s a soul then maybe there’s an issue, but I don’t.
Instantaneous Ship of Theseus
I would encourage everyone else to use it. So roads will be less crowded and I can enjoy nature in its true beauty. Assuming of course Big Corpos haven’t completely ruined it.
Is this before or after the great oil and transportation war has taken its casualties?
It is still possible to use regular transportation at a similar cost as today
I mean at that point we probably have the tech to remotely pilot a James Cameron Avatar meat puppet, so I’d rather just do that.
And probably stay in the puppet all the time tbh because I would like to be tall and athletic. Hold the blue and alien parts tho pls.
I used to work with radiation and oh my GOD would having a disposable remote brain-controlled body be a fucking boon to that industry. Though probably at that point in tech history there will be very little if any need for human radioactive material handling
Get out of bed (written from bed)
I would be scared that the person on the other side is just a clone rather than me.
There’s nothing to guarantee that every night you go to sleep that doesn’t happen.
Thank you, came here to say this. People like the phrase “continuity of consciousness” but the problem of persistent identity is much more fundamental than this thought experiment lets on
What if:
- It is physically impossible to make a copy
- Your family and friends use it daily
Different person but:
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I am concerned about continuity of consciousness, not about copies. From an earlier comment posted, you mention disintegration and reintegration. If we’re just transcribing the data into new atoms on the other side, continuity of consciousness will not transfer over. Well, to be more precise, the individual on the other side will believe it has, and to the rest of the world I will be functionally the exact same being. This doesn’t matter to me though, because my specific consciousness no longer exists. If we’re actually using the exact same atoms after disintegration, I couldn’t tell you if that would work. I sure as shit wouldn’t be trying it though.
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My family and friends do things daily I am not interested in, including things which they find to be convenient or important to their daily lives. I’ll be fine, but I also wouldn’t bother stopping them either. From my perspective, their original continuity of consciousness is irrelevant to me. They will live, feel, and act the exact same regardless. It only matters to the self, and the new iteration will always feel as if their continuity is unbroken.
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In this climate? Hell nah. If the situation was different. Maybe.
Fuck it, lets teleport. Who cares if death is the means of transport if continuity is maintained
What happens if I splinch myself?
Emerson Green convinced me that p-zombies are plausible. So there’s no way to know if a teleporter would end your consciousness.
