Posted by alexandra_k on May 31, 2005, at 15:04:32 [reposted on June 2, 2005, at 5:50:41 | original URL]
In reply to Re: Just a thought and a change of subject too, posted by Susan47 on May 31, 2005, at 9:31:29
Well...
I'll try and explain. This will sound a bit strange, but...Imagine a world that is a molecule for molecule duplicate of this world (this is typically dubbed 'twin earth' in the phil. literature). You have a counterpart on twin earth. A molecule for molecule replica of you.
Now... Would it be possible that while that world is an exact physical duplicate of this world, that there be no consciousness??? That even though 'from the outside' or from an objective point of view everything is an exact duplicate of this world - your counterpart still walks around and stares at the computer and laughs etc. But there is 'nobody home'. There is nothing it is like to be your counterpart. Your counterpart has no subjective conscious experiences whatsoever???
Typically people argue over whether it really is possible or not (possibility is an objective matter). But possibility aside, we have to grant that it is conceivable / imaginable.
If that is right then it follows that even if the sciences were complete and we knew everything there is to know about the material / physical world - there would be further facts. Whether something was conscious / whether there was something it is like to be them would be a further fact that is not merely determined by the state of the material world.
So... The point of that is that yes. Id rather not be conscious (in the sense of there being something that it is like to be me). But by keeping my material body functioning in the world IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE TO ANYBODY ELSE WHETHER I AM CONSCIOUS OR NOT.
So I wouldn't be harming anyone.
And I wouldn't have to hurt anymore.
The perfect solution.:-)
poster:alexandra_k
thread:506754
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050525/msgs/506758.html