Well whether it’s a “real” change may be besides the point if you put it this way. Our situation and our knowledge are also changing, and maybe our behavior should also change. If personal identity and/or consciousness are not fundamental, how should we value those in a world where any mind-configurations can be created and copied at will?
So there’s a view that a rational entity should never change its values. If we accept that, then any entity with different values from present-me seems to be in some sense not a “natural successor” of present-me, even if it remembers being me and shares all my values. There seems to be a qualitative distinction between an entity like that and upload-me, even if there are several branching upload-mes that have undergone various experiences and would no doubt have different views on concrete issues than present-me.
But that’s just an intuition, and I don’t know whether it can be made rigorous.
Well whether it’s a “real” change may be besides the point if you put it this way. Our situation and our knowledge are also changing, and maybe our behavior should also change. If personal identity and/or consciousness are not fundamental, how should we value those in a world where any mind-configurations can be created and copied at will?
So there’s a view that a rational entity should never change its values. If we accept that, then any entity with different values from present-me seems to be in some sense not a “natural successor” of present-me, even if it remembers being me and shares all my values. There seems to be a qualitative distinction between an entity like that and upload-me, even if there are several branching upload-mes that have undergone various experiences and would no doubt have different views on concrete issues than present-me.
But that’s just an intuition, and I don’t know whether it can be made rigorous.