Assuming that “you” are a point in consciousness phase-space, and not a “smear”. If “you-ness” is a locus of similar-but-slightly-different potential states, then “mostly right” is going to be good enough.
And, given that every morning when you wake up, you’re different-but-still-you, I’d say that there’s strong evidence that “you-ness” is a locus of similar-but-slightly-different potential states, rather than a singular point.
This means, incidentally, that it may be possible to resurrect people without a physical copy of their brains at all, if enough people who remember them well enough when the technology becomes available.
Of course, since it’s a smear, the question becomes “where do you want to draw the line between Bob and not-Bob?”—since whatever you create will believe it’s Bob, and will act the way everyone alive remembers that Bob acted, and the “original” isn’t around to argue (assuming you believe in concepts like “original” to begin with, but if you do, you have some weirder paradoxes to deal with).
Assuming that “you” are a point in consciousness phase-space, and not a “smear”. If “you-ness” is a locus of similar-but-slightly-different potential states, then “mostly right” is going to be good enough.
And, given that every morning when you wake up, you’re different-but-still-you, I’d say that there’s strong evidence that “you-ness” is a locus of similar-but-slightly-different potential states, rather than a singular point.
This means, incidentally, that it may be possible to resurrect people without a physical copy of their brains at all, if enough people who remember them well enough when the technology becomes available.
Of course, since it’s a smear, the question becomes “where do you want to draw the line between Bob and not-Bob?”—since whatever you create will believe it’s Bob, and will act the way everyone alive remembers that Bob acted, and the “original” isn’t around to argue (assuming you believe in concepts like “original” to begin with, but if you do, you have some weirder paradoxes to deal with).