The Teleporter Machine And "you"

[SkyPanther]

For any Star Trek fans, this should be an interesting existential question. 

There is a comic that makes this question clear, but it can also be used to dislodge your idea of the "self".

http://existentialcomics.com/comic/1  This is muplitple pages this is the first:

 

So the question is... if you had two points separated by millions of miles, that you could travel to at the speed of light, or faster, but it required quantum teleportation (which would destroy the you that enters the machine and then recreate your physical body on the other side), would the you that appears on the other side be "you", or your clone?

That is, are you your memories, or your continuation of consciousness? When you go to sleep, is the thing that wakes up "you" or a clone?  Since your consciousness stopped while you were sleeping. 

Some interesting things to think about, because this might be a reality one day:

 

Shades of 'Star Trek'? Quantum Teleportation Sets Distance Record

http://www.livescience.com/52259-quantum-teleportation-sets-distance-record.html

 

Edited April 4, 2016 by SkyPanther

[Philip]

@SkyPanther I would never teleport myself, and as soon as the anti-sleep pill comes out, I'm going to take one every day. Because I fear death. And both sleep and teleportation kill you every time you do them.

That's why I really hope Leo's enlightenment stuff is real. Because I started being scared of going to sleep sometimes. And it really is an awful feeling. If enlightenment is possible though, that erases the whole issue. Sleep, teleportation, brain implants, mind uploading, mind merging. All that stuff is just fine if you're enlightened. But it's horrible if you're not.

[cly]

I'm afraid to admit, I think I did that back in 1999... Now I'm trapped here instead of wherever I once was. 

Ha

great topic!

i came up with an idea, (for myself and my own theories of human evolution) of sort of a cyberspace mausoleum. So you could have your soul floating in the static of space and inject it into your clone (as you refer to it) once you transport.  

i think we bring memories and conciousness...

Edited April 5, 2016 by cly
Typo

[jjer94]

A continuation of this line of inquiry is Derek Parfit's "branch line case." This particular thought experiment points to the idea that you are not your personality, memories, etc...

It goes like this:

Say you're going to use one of those teletransporters to go to...I don't know, let's say Switzerland. So you hook everything up, flip the switch and...nothing happens. Weird, you think. But then the phone rings. You pick it up, and it's you on the other line! 

The other you says, "Oh hey there SkyPanther! Greetings from Switzerland! You may be a little confused, but yes, I am a clone of you. The teletransporter malfunctioned and created a duplicate you by mistake. And I've got some bad news for you... the operator told me that the malfunction caused a problem in your heart, and you're going to die within 24 hours. But don't worry SkyPanther! It's not like you'll be losing anything, right? I'll be continuing your life just as you left it. It'll be as if nothing happened!"

If you were the SkyPanther who was going to die within 24 hours, wouldn't you feel sh*tty? Even though your clone will carry out your life in the exact same way, something still feels wrong. That's because fundamentally, you're not your memories, your habits, your personality. You're the consciousness, the "I Am", that those things occur in, and you'll be losing that after your heart fails.

Cheers!