me
how much information will it take to recover us? To reconstruct us from the artifacts we leave behind?
V
I don't think that is possible.
me
if not to an exact representation then to an approximation?
V
Ok, so what does it mean to be recovered, and what would be the approximation?
Let's say that when given an ordered set of preferences, return a simulacrum that makes all the decisions that you would make.
me
"Was it I who escaped? Or, the other?"
V
What if our simulacrum makes all the same minor choices that we would make, but diverges when making a major choice, such as whom we marry?
And how many divergences in the major choices are within bounds? To the point that we say - that is no longer "us"?
A lot of the decisions we make are simply due to the rigidity of the world.
Do you wake up in the morning and choose to go to work? Without knowing anything about you I can have a very good model that predicts whether you do that or not.
Do you like Prince or Michael Jackson? Well there are only two choices presented. And there are countless examples of these limited choices. If there are an infinite number choices then perhaps we can get a much more clear signal.
Think about what is the highest cardinality of the choices you have made? A billion? A million? Certainly much much lower.
Any recovery would be from the background of a sea of noisy, rigid choices, with very limited signal particular to you.
me
a lot of choices are connected. There must be some manifold that can be recovered.
V
I guess one argument for the possibility of recovery is that the human body is, after all, finite.
