Hacker News Reader

Comment by datameta | Hacker News Reader

I suppose I might be conflating some thoughts on identity with consciousness. Say, if a person goes through a teleporter, are they still themselves afterwards? If an AGI is copied, is the copy them? They can no longer be only an individual, but each an instance right? Or perhaps this is a biased anthropomorphic view from the kind of sentience that either has continuity or not

View on HN

No idea I think they're all really good questions.

I like your example that they become an instance. For the sake of argument say you have Holy Grail AGI™ and you copy it and starting from State t where T is the exact moment you copy it, two instances now exist.

I think they are both "them" but the state change through time as a chaotic process and so since they are now separated they will eventually begin to drift?

This is based totally on nothing but "dude trust me I made it up"

I think that makes complete sense and points me to the fact that it it simply that most of us aren't yet fully equipped to effectively use the vocabulary to describe these concepts, but you have put it well, I believe.

Please take credit where credit is due; you used the word instance :-).

I figure what we're doing in these threads is kind of what sci-fi authors who were way smarter than myself have done for decades: Muse about a topic, put down some ideas maybe some new vocabulary Etc. Then when new technology comes out those of us who are well read can look back and say "A ha! That clever bastard knew it all along!"

Both of you might enjoy Greg Egan's Permutation City - sci-fi involving simulated human consciousnesses that explores some related ideas.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com