[mindstalk]

My own two cents on identity: indexing is valid but forkable. If I make a copy of me, both the copy and the normal continuation of me are me. They are not, however, each other. My memories, personality, and my guilt if any, are inherited by both, but any crimes one or the other commits obviously don't directly impinge on the other. (Though one might view the other with suspicion about what it might do!)

A backup is immortality for the me making the backup. It is not immortality for the later me who got killed while rock climbing, prompting the activation of the backup. We don't have a good word or concept for what it *is* for the later me -- what it is to die knowing that a younger self will appear to fill your shoes.