Manfred comments on Identity and Death - Less Wrong

9 Post author: Tenoke 18 February 2014 11:35AM

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Comment author: Manfred 19 February 2014 02:47:35AM *  2 points [-]

The person sitting in my chair in one minute is me as much as anyone is going to be me, and we're both okay with that.

Before I grappled with this issue, I was totally okay with that person being me, and didn't feel any existential dread. Then I realized that that person was very different from current me, and felt some dread. My pattern now will be gone forever before I post this, your pattern reading this will begone before you begin the next sentence. But you know what? That's what we've got. That's what, really, we are. That person who slept in my bed 10 years ago was fine with just making the most of it, and so am I.

We can react to finding out that things are weirder than we thought either by being weirded out all the time, or by increasing our standard for weirdness.

Comment author: niceguyanon 20 February 2014 07:36:07PM 1 point [-]

...your pattern reading this will begone before you begin the next sentence.

This echos the same feeling I have about all of this. If presented with an opportunity to make use of an instantaneous teleporter, I would. The patterns that ceased to exist during teleportation is no different from the patterns that ceases to exist every second of our lives.

Would I be mistaken if I said that the teleporter death problem does not present any philosophical quandary to you and you would use a teleporter?

Comment author: Manfred 21 February 2014 01:33:57AM 0 points [-]

I wouldn't say it's a quandry, but I'd still pay a few dollars to avoid it.