Warrigal comments on The Twin Webs of Knowledge - Less Wrong

5 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 28 August 2009 09:45AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 29 August 2009 09:41:30AM 1 point [-]

Suppose that you're just an ordinary person, with an ordinary person's personality, habits, and idiosyncrasies. Then, somehow, you come to find out that your personality, habits, and idiosyncrasies are all caused by the fact that there's not enough iron in your blood, or some of the proteins in your brain are misbehaving, and you fix the problem, causing your personality, habits, and idiosyncrasies to be erased and replaced with something else. Maybe you're happier and also more skilled as a result. But what part of you has been preserved?

Comment author: CannibalSmith 31 August 2009 11:20:23AM 0 points [-]

My feeling of existence.

Comment author: [deleted] 31 August 2009 04:17:17PM 0 points [-]

What if I just replaced you with a copy of, I dunno, my high school English teacher? You would still have a feeling of existence if I did that.

Comment author: CannibalSmith 31 August 2009 08:09:21PM 0 points [-]

If you did that gradually, maybe.