If cryonics suddenly worked, we'd need to face the fallout

Re:If cryonics suddenly worked, we'd need to face the fallout by T-A on Thursday April 28, 2016 @08:20PM (#11592913)

So if I manage to create a perfect copy of you, you have no objection to me shooting you - the original one - in the head afterwards? After all, you - the perfect copy - will still be alive and well.

If that prospect makes you a little uncomfortable, you are intuiting the problem of "pattern identity" vs "continuity identity".

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Re:If cryonics suddenly worked, we'd need to face the fallout by Smaug123 on Friday April 29, 2016 @04:50AM (#11594488)

I would object, obviously. It would be murder of a human. You have duplicated me; that doesn't give you the right to kill one of me. The original remains sentient, and I would quite possibly care for it more than I would care for other family.

Analogy: impregnating a woman and (eventually) causing her to give birth - that is, "duplicating" her, although the copy is actually not very like her - doesn't give you the right to kill her.

I'm fine with teleportation, if that's what you mean, but I go into that with the intention of the death of one of the copies. It's effective suicide, not externally-imposed murder.

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Re:If cryonics suddenly worked, we'd need to face the fallout by x5n1 on Friday April 29, 2016 @06:45AM (#11594841)

Humans do sexual reproduction. Many other living things don't play the sexual game, they do in fact produce copies of themselves who behave and look exactly as they do. I envy those civilized creatures. Their lives are much easier and more productive.

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Re:If cryonics suddenly worked, we'd need to face the fallout by seanp2k2 on Friday April 29, 2016 @07:23PM (#11599380)

Interesting. It really depends on what you value. I can imagine that many people value sex over productivity.

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Re:If cryonics suddenly worked, we'd need to face the fallout by jobigoud on Friday April 29, 2016 @04:36AM (#11594447)

If you make a perfect copy, the identity has branched. There are now two distinct entities (with continuity) that are starting to diverge, why would any of them accept to be shot?

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Re:If cryonics suddenly worked, we'd need to face the fallout by tfm on Friday April 29, 2016 @04:52AM (#11594493)

... not to mention, each of them might feel some small measure of empathy for the other!

What if one did this regularly? Would battle-hardened cloners become insensitive to "retirement" of their doppelgangers, or as the last survivor of the series of slayings would they start to feel hunted?

Really feels at least a few centuries too early to even gauge whether it is possible to substantially capture (let alone reproduce) the state of a brain. Sure would be disappointing if it turned out you could get 90% of the functionality with a ten-state DFA featuring frowning and pooping, but it would make cryonics a whole lot easier. "Just leave me enough brainstem to get home."

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Re:If cryonics suddenly worked, we'd need to face the fallout by FeepingCreature on Friday April 29, 2016 @06:00AM (#11594697)

I mean, I'd do it, because it's physically equivalent to losing a few seconds of memory.

But I take it I am unusual in this.

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Re:If cryonics suddenly worked, we'd need to face the fallout by tempestn on Friday April 29, 2016 @06:30AM (#11594776)

The Prestige explored a similar theme: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482571/

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Re:If cryonics suddenly worked, we'd need to face the fallout by x5n1 on Friday April 29, 2016 @06:43AM (#11594830)

Me when? 1 year old me, 10 year old me... 60 year old me. Me who finds women fascinating, me who despises women after a bitter divorce? We are many different people one day to the next. Our brains are a dynamic process forever changing. There is no you. There is only you now, later you will be different.

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