I can't wrap my head around what it would be like to exist as the "meat-version" and "cloud-version" at the same time if both of the versions maintain my identity. The reversal thing sort of makes me want to accept it more, but I wouldn't want to support the idea just because I personally don't know what would make those things limiting factors.
About gradualness: I can almost imagine that being important. Like, if you took baby!me and wrote over my mind with adult!me, maybe identity wouldn't be preserved... I guess that doesn't really make sense. But the gradualness of the change between baby!me and adult!me seems vaguely related to identity.
Really the problem I have is that I don't get what it would be like to be existing in two ways at once and be experiencing both. If I were only to experience one, I would experience the meat-version after I was scanned, and the meat-version's death/destruction wouldn't change that.
Sorry if I'm being dense.
Gotcha. OK, try this then:
At time T1, I begin replacing my meat with cloud.
At T2, I complete that process.
At T3, I make a copy of my cloud-self.
Is it your intuition that that third step ought to fail? If so, can you unpack that intuition?
If you think that third step can succeed, do you have the same problem? That is, if I can have two copies of my cloud-self running simultaneously, do you not get what that would be like?
My answer to what that would be like is it would be just like this. That is, if you make a cloud-copy of me while I'm sleeping, I wouldn't...
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