Teleportation. It isn't you that comes out the other side. Or is it? - by SubJeff
Vasquez on 22/9/2012 at 18:07
Guess it all boils down to what ultimately makes me "me". And would it be "real" enough if the teleported clone believes she is me, kind of a placebo soul effect? Would that mean that "I" actually would be "her"?
Aaagh this is almost as bad as thinking about time travel paradoxes.
SubJeff on 22/9/2012 at 18:17
No you wouldn't be her. If it copies you there is the possibility of the two of you existing at the same time.
Vivian on 22/9/2012 at 18:50
What if you and your copy get your sensoriums shut off, and get your consciousnesses merged into a you-gestalt via some kind of space internet, and then the destinations clone's sensorium is turned back on, so your gestalt is only receiving input from the destination clone, and THEN the original you gets disintegrated. So there is a continuum between the two of you.
SubJeff on 22/9/2012 at 18:58
That would work except there is no way to move a conciousness in this way. I don't mean practically, I mean you can't move it at all.
That's why these guys are full of it: (
http://www.facebook.com/2045Initiative)
Vasquez on 22/9/2012 at 19:01
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
No you wouldn't be her. If it copies you there is the possibility of the two of you existing at the same time.
I was thinking of the kind of teleportation where I would be disassembled, moved to another place and assembled again using the original [physical] stuff.
Or do you mean the "I" essence would be somewhere else at the same time?
SubJeff on 22/9/2012 at 19:10
Well if you can transport the physical stuff why not transport it whole?
And just the disassembly would kill you.
ZylonBane on 22/9/2012 at 19:15
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
I had a discussion with some of my friends about this and we came to the conclusion that the
ability to teleport (like Nightwalker) would be cool
Wow, who knew our moderators were so talented?
Vasquez on 22/9/2012 at 19:17
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
Well if you can transport the physical stuff why not transport it whole?
I don't know, maybe it would be easier to whip it down into pure energy form, pack in quantums or something and move it that way to the other end of the universe.
Obviously it would kill me, but if it was possible to put back together in original form and bring back to life, would it be the same "me", or would there be some sort of soul rebooting?
Anyway I'm too sleepy for this weirdness, bed time now :p
DDL on 22/9/2012 at 20:45
Plus of course there's the whole sleep thing. Everytime you fall asleep your consciousness switches off.
You can almost never remember the few minutes before falling asleep, so whoever you are when you're really tired? That person is effectively dead.
If your argument is 'continuousness of consciousness', then you have to deal with the above, and sleep is as lethal as teleportation.
If your argument allows for discontinuous consciousness, then teleportation is no more lethal than sleep.
Mind you, I've always thought an interesting sci fi story would be "teleportation IS serial murder, also souls exist, also copies have souls", where there'd be some limbo full of copies of the souls of people using teleporters, all unable to communicate to the living incarnation of themselves to tell them to STOP TELEPORTING.
But that's probably actually been done already.
