It doesnt matter which is original, you could kill the one thats been around a while, you could kill the fresh one, its still murder. This whole idea is an illusion cooked up by a science fiction show to explain why their characters jump between different tacky sets so quickly, a 6 month voyage across the solar system doesnt make for good TV.
Well I don't disagree with any of that, but I still think it's an important idea to sus out. How we define ourselves, especially our "originality" or "authenticity," gets to the heart of a lot important topics: gender identity, cultural affiliation, spirituality and religiosity, and of course the really Big Ones, aging and death.
If you insist that there is an original, authentic "you," who are you when you're not that? How do you become that person? Why do want to become them? When your perception of what is "original" or "authentic" in you inevitably changes, how do you reconcile those concepts, which by their nature imply stasis, with the fact that we are constantly changing all the time?
I don't think so. We're constantly destroying who we are. The teleportation metaphor just takes what is usually psychic background noise and forces you to look at it. "We" end, and get restarted, every morning. We constantly rearrange ourselves, psychologically and biologically. There is no point in the arc of our existence that you can pick out and say, "that's the original me," just like there's no point where you can say, "well, that's just a copy."
The reason you cannot distinguish an original you is that there is no breakpoint, it is all the original you. Even as you sleep you are concious on some level, and sleep is not an abrupt moment where you are suddenly different, in the gradual transition from drowsy to tired to falling asleep to dreaming, there is no point where you yourself can identify as when you fell asleep, try writing down the exact time you fell asleep, you cant really.
there is no point where you yourself can identify as when you fell asleep
Yes, exactly. And in the same way, no one can identify when they die. Experience is all we can experience. Which mean theoretical breaks of time or space to that experience are meaningless.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. Not being glib, I genuinely don't understand.
It doesnt matter which is original, you could kill the one thats been around a while, you could kill the fresh one, its still murder. This whole idea is an illusion cooked up by a science fiction show to explain why their characters jump between different tacky sets so quickly, a 6 month voyage across the solar system doesnt make for good TV.
Well I don't disagree with any of that, but I still think it's an important idea to sus out. How we define ourselves, especially our "originality" or "authenticity," gets to the heart of a lot important topics: gender identity, cultural affiliation, spirituality and religiosity, and of course the really Big Ones, aging and death.
If you insist that there is an original, authentic "you," who are you when you're not that? How do you become that person? Why do want to become them? When your perception of what is "original" or "authentic" in you inevitably changes, how do you reconcile those concepts, which by their nature imply stasis, with the fact that we are constantly changing all the time?
I think the exploration of who we really are as changing beings is somewhat hampered by the human vaporization present in the metaphor
I don't think so. We're constantly destroying who we are. The teleportation metaphor just takes what is usually psychic background noise and forces you to look at it. "We" end, and get restarted, every morning. We constantly rearrange ourselves, psychologically and biologically. There is no point in the arc of our existence that you can pick out and say, "that's the original me," just like there's no point where you can say, "well, that's just a copy."
The reason you cannot distinguish an original you is that there is no breakpoint, it is all the original you. Even as you sleep you are concious on some level, and sleep is not an abrupt moment where you are suddenly different, in the gradual transition from drowsy to tired to falling asleep to dreaming, there is no point where you yourself can identify as when you fell asleep, try writing down the exact time you fell asleep, you cant really.
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general anesthesia doesnt shut off everything, but a lot more than sleeping does
Yes, exactly. And in the same way, no one can identify when they die. Experience is all we can experience. Which mean theoretical breaks of time or space to that experience are meaningless.