Aberatii intelectuale

 1/1 urmat de 3 miliarde de zerouri. Adica 0,un sir de 2999999999 de zerouri si un 1 la sfarsit - aceasta era probabilitatea sa existi daca identitatea ta personala este data de spermatozoidul tatalui tau care a fecundat ovulul mamei tale, cand iei in calcul toate fecundarile de acest gen care au avut loc de la aparitia vietii pe Pamant (din momentul in care a inceput inmultirea sexuala). Numarul atomilor din universul observabil este undeva la 10^80. Probabilitatea ca tu sa existi daca folosim considerentul de mai sus este de 1/10^3000000000. Diferenta nu este "astronomica" ci face ca termenul "astronomic" sa nu fie altceva decat o simpla valoare insignifianta, asa de mare este diferenta dintre cele doua numere. Si totusi esti aici si citesti acest articol, in care vom vedea ca cea mai plauzibila explicatie pentru ceea ce esti (si, de fapt, pentru ceea ce suntem cu totii) este aceea ca fundamental exista un singur subiect unic care traieste toate vietile individual...

 One of the topics I've always stayed away from is the topic of personal identity - this is a notoriously difficult thing to talk about: what makes you you ? This question has been haunting me for quite some time so I decided to finally take it head on and see what I can come up with, if anything. The premise that I'm going to work with is the idea that the only thing that gives us our personal identity is the current configuration of our brains - the way the neurons are interconnected and the information in this network is how our personal identity emerges - no soul or "magic substance" behind all of this. Of course, this is pretty much the established view in the scientific community, although there are exceptions. So the question is - what can we say about the personal identity starting from this premise? What are the implications? Can you be cloned? Copied? Re-instantiated? Is the copy of yourself also you ? Imagine the following scenario: Alice is a murderer. She...