Yes, that seems more consistent with the rest of the sequences (and indeed advocacy of cryonics/timeless identity). “You” are a pattern, not a specific collection of atoms. So if the pattern persists (as per successive moments of time, or destroying and re-creating the pattern), so do “you”.
Sure. At the same time, it’s important to note that this is a ‘you’ by stipulation. The question of how to define self-identity for linguistic purposes (e.g., the scope of pronouns) is independent of the psychological question ‘When do I feel as though something is ‘part of me’?‘, and both of these are independent of the normative question ‘What entities should I act to preserve in the same way that I act to preserve my immediate person?’ It may be that there is no unique principled way to define the self, in which case we should be open to shifting conceptions based on which way of thinking is most useful in a given situation.
This is one of the reasons the idea of my death does not terrify me. The idea of death in general is horrific, but the future I who will die will only be somewhat similar to my present self, differing only in degree from my similarity to other persons. I fear death, not just ‘my’ death.
Yes, that seems more consistent with the rest of the sequences (and indeed advocacy of cryonics/timeless identity). “You” are a pattern, not a specific collection of atoms. So if the pattern persists (as per successive moments of time, or destroying and re-creating the pattern), so do “you”.
Sure. At the same time, it’s important to note that this is a ‘you’ by stipulation. The question of how to define self-identity for linguistic purposes (e.g., the scope of pronouns) is independent of the psychological question ‘When do I feel as though something is ‘part of me’?‘, and both of these are independent of the normative question ‘What entities should I act to preserve in the same way that I act to preserve my immediate person?’ It may be that there is no unique principled way to define the self, in which case we should be open to shifting conceptions based on which way of thinking is most useful in a given situation.
This is one of the reasons the idea of my death does not terrify me. The idea of death in general is horrific, but the future I who will die will only be somewhat similar to my present self, differing only in degree from my similarity to other persons. I fear death, not just ‘my’ death.
Sure, but my point is that most of the commentary on this site, or that is predicated on the Sequences, assumes the equivalence of all of those.