"Ron_Fischer.mvenvos"@XEROX.COM (03/22/89)
The "teleport me by duping" (Xerox) versus "teleport me by destroying and recreating" (Phoenix) raises the fundamental question of when does someone die in a society with these rather extensive capabilities. Offhand, death would have to be defined by information loss, as hinted by Eric in EoC when he referred to central nervous system damage as irreversible. My girlfriend, who is an emergency room nurse, considered the Phoenix case carefully and then likened it to the emotional trauma someone who loses a limb goes through. You feel sad that you lost that physical thing you inhabited, but you carry on as usual. The line of experience is unbroken and hence they can't be said to have died. Death would become finer grained along with the definition of the individual. E.g. if you forked yourself and the copy died then the unique part of that individual can certainly be said to have died. (ron)