Why Me

I often ask myself, why me. There are billions of brains on this planet

alone, and no one knows how many sentient beings exist in the galaxy, or in

the entire universe. I share 99.8% of my DNA with chimps (if I remember

well), and even more with any human on the planet. Granted, there is no

brain that works _exactly_ like mine. But the differences seem trivial. Why

must I be witness to the data processing that occurs inside this particular

brain?

The problem has been obscured for a long time, because no two people are

exactly alike. Even identical twins end up with slightly different DNAs and

different environmental influences make them into very different people.

"Everyone is different, so that is why I'm me and nobody else" - a weak

thinker would tell you. When asked about the nature of these differences,

they would go on to describe the various tastes and behaviors that people

show. But what is making them believe these things that they are saying, is

actually the shape of people's faces. They _look_ different, so they _must_

be different. Furthermore, I am used to seeing _this_ face in the mirror,

therefore I do not doubt that I _am_ this person associated with this face,

and I do not need to know the nature of this 'association'.

Consider nanotechnology. Using nanotechnology, it will be possible to

arrange atoms in any desired fashion, precisely. Atomic copies will become

possible. The difference between an object, and its atomic copy, will be,

exactly, none. Provided that the replication process is precise and that no

atoms are moved around, it will not be possible, not even in principle, to

tell the difference between the two objects. It will be a foolish claim to

say that the two have 'differences'. They will have no differences. Seems

trivial, but wait. What if you made a copy of a person using the same

method. Suppose it is your best friend. After the copy is made, you'd be

left with two best friends (good deal). As I explained, there will be no

difference between the two; being people, they'll both 'feel' alive and

remember to have agreed to the experiment. Either one will resent being told

that 'he is the copy'. With time, the two would slowly become different

people, for they would have different experiences. But if you duplicated

your friend and before any time passed went on to destroy the original? To

you, this would not have made any difference. Your friend would still

remember the old times, and you could forget about the experiment and live

the rest of your days without noticing a difference in your buddy. If you

have uncertainties at this point, please go back and read over, because

things get tough from now on.

Duplicating your friend was fun, but let's suppose you now want to duplicate

yourself. At the end of the experiment, there would be two "you"s in the

room. We will try to answer a few questions about their identities and the

relationships between the two. First, we would be tempted to ask, who's the

original, and who is the copy. We have already decided that an atomic copy

leaves no room for differences - two atoms of a same element are perfectly

identical. So how can it be possible that we still see things from only one

pair of eyes? If we agree that there can be no difference between the

original and the copy, then we must agree that seeing from only 2 of those

resulting four eyes is suspicious. Don't start the "but they will be

different people" argument. It is not relevant here. In fact, to help you

get that out of the way, we have performed the experiment in a perfectly

symmetrical room. Magnetic fields, thermal fluctuations, the wallpaper...

everything is identical down to the smallest detail. The doors are locked.

The two people in the room (you and you) will continue to have the exact

same inputs from all senses; therefore, they will continue to be exact

copies. It could be very difficult to create such an environment in the real

world, but in virtual reality it certainly will be possible.

So you're locked in this room with your copy. At one point, a speaker

located in the middle of the room announces: one of you guys will be

executed. From a third person perspective the execution of one of the

identical copies has no negative consequences. You are identical, so the

information loss is zero. Furthermore, your relatives won't miss you,

because one of you will go ahead and continue your regular life. Still, I

suspect, if you were in this situation you'd have a STRONG preference as to

who