Yeah, I don’t think I’d be someone who cares too much about philosophical questions of “is it really me”. If it recreates my body and memories as they were at the point of disintegration that’s good enough for me. As a millenial, the idea if being able to die more than once has its appeal.
not necessarily. having the transporter means we have figured out how to make exact one to one copy of an object on a molecular level. that doesn’t mean we understand how the informations in human brain are organized and that we can change them.
If it’s a seamless passing of consciousness and memory right up to the point of death, sure.
Consider there’s a medical procedure for extending your life that, over the course of a year, replaces each of your cells one by one with an exact replica just with more telomeres or whatever. You probably wouldn’t consider that dying, but it’s the same idea as the transporter, the transporter just does all the disassembly and reassembly at once. It’s the classic Reconstituted Relativistic Meat Suit of Theseus paradox.
The “Ship of Theseus” example is how our bodies work normally, the transporter makes a new you out of separate matter in another place. Nothing implies a transfer of consciousness, just an exact copy of you is there. Of course, I realize that for the purposes of the shows and movies, none of this is a concern, but a real version of this would be ethically fucked up.
In practical terms, the transporter in order to preserve quantum identity, would need to be reproducing you at the same time as it destroys the old you. To be widely accepted by society, it would need to preserve consciousness continuity, so you’d briefly feel being in two places at the same time, then just at the destination.
Now, a power failure mid transfer… wouldn’t be pretty.
Yeah, I don’t think I’d be someone who cares too much about philosophical questions of “is it really me”. If it recreates my body and memories as they were at the point of disintegration that’s good enough for me. As a millenial, the idea if being able to die more than once has its appeal.
A transporter that can recreate you with all your memories can also recreate you with new Transporter Corp ® approved ones. I think I’ll pass.
not necessarily. having the transporter means we have figured out how to make exact one to one copy of an object on a molecular level. that doesn’t mean we understand how the informations in human brain are organized and that we can change them.
If another perfect copy of you existed, you be okay with being killed? That’s fucking weird.
If it’s a seamless passing of consciousness and memory right up to the point of death, sure.
Consider there’s a medical procedure for extending your life that, over the course of a year, replaces each of your cells one by one with an exact replica just with more telomeres or whatever. You probably wouldn’t consider that dying, but it’s the same idea as the transporter, the transporter just does all the disassembly and reassembly at once. It’s the classic Reconstituted Relativistic Meat Suit of Theseus paradox.
The “Ship of Theseus” example is how our bodies work normally, the transporter makes a new you out of separate matter in another place. Nothing implies a transfer of consciousness, just an exact copy of you is there. Of course, I realize that for the purposes of the shows and movies, none of this is a concern, but a real version of this would be ethically fucked up.
In practical terms, the transporter in order to preserve quantum identity, would need to be reproducing you at the same time as it destroys the old you. To be widely accepted by society, it would need to preserve consciousness continuity, so you’d briefly feel being in two places at the same time, then just at the destination.
Now, a power failure mid transfer… wouldn’t be pretty.