Originally Posted by JCurwen3
I think the answer is probably obvious yet not acceptable to most: there is no "self", as such. We know the brain has to do stuff in order to create the idea and experience of a continuous self. This goes wrong in conditions like Cotard's Syndrome (or Delusion, if you like, although that word is more judgemental). Numerous dissociative states, some functional, some wildly dysfunctional, some subtle, and some wildly obvious (D.I.D., dissociative amnesia and fugues) exist which show that the so-called normal "healthy" state of integration of personality, thoughts, emotions, memory, and physical sensations require the brain to do stuff in order to create this idea of the unified "self" (and I'm not convinced that this is a necessarily healthy state, this total integration, just a socially desirable and useful state... I'd advocate pursuing a high degree of dissociation).
If they copied "you" into another medium (biological or technological), but didn't shut you down first (perhaps, by "killing" you), then you'd perceive an identical personality but a different person, not you. In fact, in all ways that count, the moment that the two entities started having different experiences, they'd be two different but very very similar persons. If they knocked you out to scan you or they destructively scanned you and then created the copy, and then destroyed your body, we could say that the new thing was "you". Heck, even if we made the copy, left it shut down, let you live in your current body for a year, then destroyed you and your body, and then switched it on, well, isn't that "you" but with a year's permanent amnesia?
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