Re: LS Program: Instant cloning

From: Jonathan B. Marder (marder@agri.huji.ac.il)
Date: Wed Feb 03 1999 - 20:50:07 GMT


Hi all,

Magnus:
>>Suppose there is a teleportation system that copies your DNA, kills
>>you then instantaneously builds a perfect copy of you at a different
>>location would you agree to travel by it?

How far away? If the clone appears an instant later an infinitesimal
distance away, then this is indistinguishable from normal movement! Is
the "me" that moves always the same me, or is it a series of clones? Is
the river that flows by always the same river?

I started to write about the whole technical problem of selecting and
digitizing the relevant parameters, but it all seems to be superficial.
Maxwell's demon was about creating physical effects by collecting and
using information. The commonly accepted view is that the information
handling is work in a very real sense, and absolutely physical. It seems
that "teleportation" is the same thing - physically moving an object
from point to point. Actually, looking back at Magnus's original
question, "teleportation" seems to be simply an unusual description of
"conventional" transport.
Sorry to end with such an anticlimax.

Jonathan

MOQ Online - http://www.moq.org



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