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Joined: Mar 2009
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M
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M
Joined: Mar 2009
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Most excellent everybody--thank you!

Some neat things to follow-up on, and to pass-on.

Happy Trails, Mike

Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
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Originally Posted By: etaoin
I've been trying to get through I Am a Strange Loop by Hofstadter, but the math in just puts me to sleep. great concepts(not all of which I agree with), but.


I've just finished this myself. after a while, he has done with the math. in the latter part of the book some fascinating thought experiments are posed, including this one: you are teletransported from Earth to Mars; the Scanner here on Earth destroys your brain and body while copying the exact state of all of your cells, transmits the data to Mars, traveling at the speed of light the data reaches Mars in about three(3) minutes where the Replicator creates, out of new matter, a brain and body exactly like yours. there are variations on this theme -- in one, the system is improved such that it is no longer destructive and a copy of you is produced on Mars; in another, two copies are produced, one on Mars and one on Venus. the question posed, in all of these cases, is "what happens to the (inveterate) self?!"

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Joined: Mar 2000
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M, is there some reason you didn't use 'original' instead of 'inveterate'? Just askin'.

I say that in the first scenario, you die. With the same inveterateness wink I assert that a tree falling in a forest does make a noise, I say that "exactly like" does not equal "the same".

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