Would it make a difference if the laws of physics prevent or allow a machine from operating in ‘duplicate’ mode?

  • Ada@piefed.blahaj.zone
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    13 hours ago

    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.

    • Lumidaub@feddit.org
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      13 hours ago

      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”.

          • Lemmywinks@lemmy.world
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            5 hours ago

            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?

              • Lemmywinks@lemmy.world
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                3 hours ago

                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.