You know those sci-fi teleporters like in Star Trek where you disappear from one location then instantaneously reappear in another location? Do you trust that they are safe to use?

To fully understand my question, you need to understand the safety concerns regarding teleporters as explained in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQHBAdShgYI

spoiler

I wouldn’t, because the person that reappears aint me, its a fucking clone. Teleporters are murder machines. Star Trek is a silent massacre!

  • Zetaphor@zemmy.ccEnglish
    12·
    1 year ago

    If all I experience is being one place one moment and another place the next, then it’s me

    If I make an exact molecular copy of you and set that copy free into the world thinking it had just successfully transported, but then I take the original you that entered the transporter and lock them up in a basement somewhere, how is that any different? From the perspective of the conscious being that came out the other end their continuity is uninterrupted. They will think they are the only version of themselves to have ever existed and that they simply moved from one place to another, as opposed to being a duplicate of the original entity, and that the original entity may be dead or in this case locked in a basement.

    • Zetaphor@zemmy.ccEnglish
      6·
      1 year ago

      Now I want to see a dystopian fiction where the original instances of a person are taken away and used as slave labor while the clones come out the other side thinking they’re the only copy.

    • TauZero@mander.xyzEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      If I make 100 exact molecular copies of you and lock them up in my emerald mine to slave away for the rest of their lives, but then I take the original you and give you $10 and send you on your way, how is that any different? You know you are the original and nothing can change that, so YOU you have nothing to fear, right?

    • Trekman10@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      If I walk to the teleport pad, expecting to blink from Point A to Point B, but instead I experience a blink from Point A to Point A, I’m the kind of person who’d need to be physically coerced, threatened, or tricked into captivity, because I’d immediately hop off the pad like “uh why am I still here I’m supposed to be in Berlin, I’m not leaving until you refund my transport cost or get me to Berlin”. If I’m not conscious, then I’m the victim of criminal action, not the teleporter.

      Likewise, the version of me that just experienced a normal teleport would live their life as they would have anyways.