I'd like to add a short poll to the question, assuming Prismattic doesn't mind (in which case I will delete these posts).
Upvote this if you would press the button AND you would not be willing to commit quantum suicide EXCEPT when you are particularly desperate and would also consider playing a simple Newtonian Russian Roulette with equivalent payoffs.
I had to add this because in the form NihilCredo specified the options all of them were crazy! I think NihilCredo intended my kind of reasoning to fit into the no matter what option but I could not bring myself to choose it. There are just so many counterexamples I could think of.
Actually, revise that - not pressing the button i...
I have been trying to absorb the Lesswrong near-consensus on cryonics/quantum mechanics/uploading, and I confess to being unpersuaded by it. I'm not hostile to cryonics; just indifferent, and having a bit of trouble articulating why the insights on identity that I have been picking up from the quantum mechanics sequence aren't compelling to me. I offer the following thought experiment in hopes that others may be able to present the argument more effectively if they understand the objection here.
Suppose that Omega appears before you and says, “All life on Earth is going to be destroyed tomorrow by [insert cataclysmic event of your choice here]. I offer you the chance to push this button, which will upload your consciousness to a safe place out of reach of the cataclysmic event, preserving all of your memories, etc. up to the moment you pushed the button and optimizing you such that you will be effectively immortal. However, the uploading process is painful, and because it interferes with your normal perception of time, your original mind/body will subjectively experience the time after you pushed the button but before the process is complete as a thousand years of the most intense agony. Additionally, I can tell you that a sufficient number of other people will choose to push the button that your uploaded existence will not be lonely.”
Do you push the button?
My understanding of the Lesswrong consensus on this issue is that my uploaded consciousness is me, not just a copy of me. I'm hoping the above hypothetical illustrates why I'm having trouble accepting that.