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…
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”.
What happens if there’s a malfunction in the machine and the copy is made at the other end without the original version being destroyed? Do you think you would experience both perspectives simultaneously?
Right, but even if everything did work as intended there is still the possibility that it might not have done, and that possibility helps us understand what is actually happening, which is that you are killed and a copy of you is created somewhere else. There is absolutely no reason to believe that your experience would magically transfer over to that copy.
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”.
You wouldn’t feel anything. A copy of you would be the one not feeling the difference.
That copy is me though.
You have absolutely no reason to believe that.
What happens if there’s a malfunction in the machine and the copy is made at the other end without the original version being destroyed? Do you think you would experience both perspectives simultaneously?
My original answer does indeed include “assuming everything works as intended”.
Right, but even if everything did work as intended there is still the possibility that it might not have done, and that possibility helps us understand what is actually happening, which is that you are killed and a copy of you is created somewhere else. There is absolutely no reason to believe that your experience would magically transfer over to that copy.