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DanArmak comments on Open Thread, August 2010 - Less Wrong
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Copying has at best zero utility (as regards interests): each copy only indulges in one interest, and I anticipate being only one copy, even if I don't know in advance which one.
How is having children at all similar? 1) children would have different interests; 2) I cannot control (precommit) future children; 3) raising children would be for me a huge negative utility - both emotionally and resource-wise.
This is not true for me. I care about my ideas beyond my own desire to implement them. If I knew there was a passionate and capable person willing to take over some of my ideas (which I'd otherwise not have time for), I'd jump on the opportunity.
Doubly so if the other person was a copy of me, in which case I'd not only have a guarantee on competence, but assurance that the person would be able to relate the story and product to me afterwards (and possibly share the profit).
Interestingly, now that you bring this up, I'm not at all certain that I'd be able to communicate especially effectively with a copy of myself. Probably better than with a randomly selected person, but perhaps not as well as I might hope.
What makes you reach that conclusion?
I think communication would start out good and become amazing over time. I don't communicate with myself completely in English, there's a lot of thoughts that go through unencoded. Having a copy of myself to talk to would force us to encode those raw thoughts as best as possible. This isn't necessarily easy but I think the really difficulty part would already be behind us, namely having the same core thoughts.
I think people can feel a sense of accomplishment when their child achieved something they wanted but never got around to.