Chapter 12
The Continuing Replica And The Paradox It Creates
The identical replica thought experiment establishes that your consciousness can be produced by another body. But a snapshot in time is not enough. What matters for immortality is continuity: not continuity of the body, but continuity of conscious experience.
This is where the cidentireplica comes in.
A cidentireplica (a continuing identical replica) is a body that not only starts with your physical organization but continues to match you over time. It doesn't just match you at one moment; it matches you moment by moment, producing the same awarepath you would produce.
The Cidentireplica Paradox
Here is the paradox that gives this thought experiment its power.
The cidentireplica, by definition, has behavior identical to yours. It says the same things, does the same things, responds to questions in the same way. If you ask it its name, it gives your name. If you ask it about events from your past, it answers correctly (from its perspective, and its perspective is identical to yours).
This claim is clearly absurd when applied to blueprints and houses. Why should it be any less absurd when applied to brains and consciousness?
This is a stark choice, and the burden of proof falls heavily on the side claiming an invisible extra ingredient.
No observer, no matter how sophisticated, no matter how much information they have, can tell the difference between you and the cidentireplica based on behavior alone. The behaviors are identical because the brains producing them are identical.
What the Cidentireplica Tells Us About Death
Now take the next step. The cidentireplica has a continuing existence. Its brain continues to function identically to yours, moment by moment. It continues to produce the same conscious experience you would produce.
If your original body dies, and the cidentireplica continues — from the perspective of conscious experience, nothing has ended. The same ixperiencitness continues to be produced. The pattern continues. You continue, in every way that consciousness can measure.
From your perspective (if you were the one who died), you would not experience death. You would not experience a gap. You would simply continue having experiences, produced by the cidentireplica's brain, without ever knowing that your original body had ceased to exist. This is because consciousness is produced by the physical pattern, and the relevant pattern never stopped.
Key Terms in This Chapter
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The remaining text (examples, counter-arguments, and longer connective passages) is in the book.