[csn]

Is there any name for this puzzle? I've been thinking about this for a while now.

Cloning the particles (and their states) that make you up would most likely produce a separate mind, as I think would teleporting where v1 is destroyed and v2 consisting of different particles, although in the same configuration. But what about separating said configuration, transporting them somewhere else and putting them back together? Cryogenics is in my opinion the only possible way to give a chance in preserving an original mind well beyond natural human lifespan without actually extending it.

Not only can't others tell a clone apart from the original: the hypothetic clone, as I understand it, couldn't do that either. Now what if this process, due to cellular regeneration in the brain, happens constantly? Your mind is not the same it was a minute ago: that mind is dead and gone. Would it even matter?

[mastazi]

The thing is, unless you have certain metaphysical beliefs, the very concept of "identity" is a flawed one and doesn't really represent the reality of us being actually a complex aggregate structure of cells. The concept of "self" is in my opinion just a rough approximation or a framework that we use to quickly assess reality, much like time, as we commonly think of it, does not fully represent the complexities of relativistic time, however it is useful to manage our daily life[1]: the sentence "I'll be with you in 5 minutes" could open a whole lot of possibilities if we consider time in a relativistic scenario, whereas it is fairly unambiguous in our daily life. Similarly, the concept of "self" would be very ambiguous with regards to e.g. annelid worms (who can be split in 2 and survive as two separate individuals[2]) whereas it sums up fairly well the way we think of ourselves as individuals.

[1] See http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/2166333... [2] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragmentation_(reproduction)

[r721]

It was called "Teletransporter (new matter): survival or death?" in a poll of philosophers:

http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2009/12/what_do_philoso....

http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2009/12/15/who-are-...

[spyder]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletransportation_paradox