Chekov, Pavel Andreievich (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
candothat) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
poly_chromatic2013-11-21 08:14 pm
candothat) wrote in poly_chromatic2013-11-21 08:14 pm
Entry tags:
audio; backdated to the 20th
[The recording starts mid-conversation (caused, perhaps, by excited gesticulating). Chekov's voice is loud and clear; any number of other voices can be in the background, along with the occasional clink of glass on glass and the roar of laughter. The words of whoever he's talking to can't be made out.]
--method of teleportation that you are talking about does not lead to the destruction of the individual. I think that you misunderstand how the process works.
[A pause. More background noise.]
No, no no no. Our identity depends upon how the constituent molecules that we are made of are arranged, not upon which molecules have been arranged. There is no difference between one carbon atom and another, do you understand? And so if the position of everything that makes us up is copied perfectly and this information is transmitted and we are annihilated and reassembled, we will, in the end, be the same person as we were at the start.
[His conversational partner apparently has something to say to that.]
No one is killed. I cannot be more specific about the process, but I understand your concern about personal identity and the destruction of the individual being teleported.
[A much longer pause.]
Now you are making the assumption that there is something more than the physical arrangement of constituent particles that leads to this thing called the individual. Unless you are telling me that there is an immaterial soul to be concerned with, what is the concern? From the perspective of the individual being teleported, the process is nearly instantaneous and they experience no cessation of existence or consciousness. As I said, arrangement is what matters.
[Short pause.]
Of course duplication would be possible, that is why any technology capable of copying individuals down to the quantum level would necessitate a number of safety precautions. Responsible engineering can prevent paradoxes like the one you pose.
[Another long pause.]
No, I have not. What is the Ship of Theseus?
[OOC: Open to action at the Wolf's Den. Sorry for backdating, but yesterday's curse was perfect and I missed it and everything was sadness. That said, I don't think Chekov's probably the best of philosophers...]
--method of teleportation that you are talking about does not lead to the destruction of the individual. I think that you misunderstand how the process works.
[A pause. More background noise.]
No, no no no. Our identity depends upon how the constituent molecules that we are made of are arranged, not upon which molecules have been arranged. There is no difference between one carbon atom and another, do you understand? And so if the position of everything that makes us up is copied perfectly and this information is transmitted and we are annihilated and reassembled, we will, in the end, be the same person as we were at the start.
[His conversational partner apparently has something to say to that.]
No one is killed. I cannot be more specific about the process, but I understand your concern about personal identity and the destruction of the individual being teleported.
[A much longer pause.]
Now you are making the assumption that there is something more than the physical arrangement of constituent particles that leads to this thing called the individual. Unless you are telling me that there is an immaterial soul to be concerned with, what is the concern? From the perspective of the individual being teleported, the process is nearly instantaneous and they experience no cessation of existence or consciousness. As I said, arrangement is what matters.
[Short pause.]
Of course duplication would be possible, that is why any technology capable of copying individuals down to the quantum level would necessitate a number of safety precautions. Responsible engineering can prevent paradoxes like the one you pose.
[Another long pause.]
No, I have not. What is the Ship of Theseus?
[OOC: Open to action at the Wolf's Den. Sorry for backdating, but yesterday's curse was perfect and I missed it and everything was sadness. That said, I don't think Chekov's probably the best of philosophers...]
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What do you think about M-theory?
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[DON'T GO THERE. Janeway will eat him if he talks about future science too much!]
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[Go there? He lives there.]
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The greatest mystery the universe offers is not life but size.
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[And it has been proven true by Chekov's time, so. The MWI is still debatable.]
Then have you solved the mystery of life, or are you less interested in it than in size?
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Oh, I think I'm just less interested in it than size right now.
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[Because if so, that's neat.]
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