Comment by andai | Hacker News Reader

Comment by andai | Hacker News Reader

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I read a great essay about that a few years ago. The thought experiment went like this: imagine a universe in which a machine scans your atoms one by one, transmits the data wirelessly to Mars, and rebuilds you there, atom by atom. Does your consciousness "jump" to the new body, or do you just die? *

What if the scanner is able to scan you without destroying the original body? What if you accidentally arrive in two destinations? etc...

* Another fascinating question is, we'll assume the new body will be just as conscious as you were. Where does its consciousness "come" from? From its point of view, it was in the teleporter on Earth one moment, and on Mars the next!

I thought the video game SOMA did a nice job exploring this area.

Also worth checking out the 2006 Christopher Nolan film The Prestige if you’ve never seen it.

Also worth checking out the game The Swapper

“Think like a dinosaur” a science fiction story on that subject. It’s been adapted a few times for TV, I think eg in The Outer Limits (90s version or early 2000s?)

When 2 parents have a child, where does that new consciousness come from?

When someone dies where does the consciousness go?

I don’t think there’s any law of conservation of consciousness.

We also lose consciousness every night when we sleep.

I think it's bizarre that we all collectively cease consciousness around the same time every day as everyone around us. We all become willingly helpless for hours with no protection from any danger every day. It's ridiculous.

Teens typically stay up later than parents who stay up later than grandparents. And babies tend to use a 2-3 hour feed cycle which necessitates mom at the minimum to be somewhat awake. There seems to be evolutionary reasons for this (probably to prevent predation). Interesting some schools and I think California in general has introduced a later start time for teens because of this biology.

So it is staggered in general.

Sure, but also, you wake up as the same person every day.

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