Consciousness

continued existence of your body or your physical or
social environment, but will depend on the informa-
tion having been transmitted through space.

The question is – will you go?

Many people are happy to go. They reason that if
their whole body is completely replicated, they won’t
notice the difference: they will feel just the same as
before, and indeed will be just the same as before.
Others refuse to go. Their reasons may not be as
rational but may be more forcefully felt. ‘This journey
is not travelling but dying’, they may say; ‘the person
who appears in Ibiza is just a replica, not the real me.
I  don’t want to die’. It may be some consolation that
after they get back from their trip, the replica will be
able to take over their life, see their friends, be part
of their family, finish their projects and so on, but still
it will not really be ‘me’. They do not accept, as the
bundle theorist must, that it is an empty question
whether ‘they’ are about to live or die (Parfit, 1987).

Some further thought experiments delve deeper.
Imagine that the old you fails to be destroyed. In the
futuristic fantasy of British neurologist Paul Broks, he
presses the button for a routine trip to Mars only to
be informed later that something has gone wrong.
His replica is fine, but he is still here, in contraven-
tion of the Proliferation of Persons Act. Rather than
allowing two Pauls to live, the original, which should
have been destroyed, may have to be killed. ‘Even
Bundle Theorists don’t want to die’, he says as he
awaits his fate (2003, p. 223).

Late in the first century, Plutarch imagined a ship being
restored by replacing all of it, plank by plank. When
does the Ship of Theseus stop being the same ship?
Related questions are raised by the high-tech tele-
transporter. Imagine that only a few cells are replaced,
or any proportion of them you like. Is there now some
critical percentage beyond which you die and a viable
replica is created in your place? If 50% are replaced,
what would you conclude? Would the person who
wakes up be half you and half replica? This conclusion
seems ludicrous, but still you may be tempted to say
that there must be an answer  – the resulting person
must really be either you or someone else. If that is
how you think, then you are an ego theorist.

With this in mind, we may now explore a few theo-
ries of self. The examples given here in no way cover
all possible approaches, but we have chosen those

ACtIVItY 16.1

The teletransporter

Imagine you want to go to the beautiful city of Cape

Town for a holiday. You are offered a simple, free,

almost instantaneous, and 100% safe way of getting

there and back. All you have to do is step inside the

box, press the button, and...

The box is, of course, Parfit’s teletransporter. In making

the journey, every cell of your body and brain will be

scanned and destroyed, and then replicated exactly as

they were before, but in Cape Town. Would you press

the button?

To create a memorable exercise and encourage

people to think more deeply, use a few chairs or

tables to make the box and provide a colourful ‘Go’

button for a volunteer inside to press. Ask someone

to stand by the button and say whether they would

press it or not. What does everyone else think?

Would they say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’? Do not allow any

‘Don’t knows’ (if people do not want to answer

publicly, they could write down their answer). Do not

allow quibbles over safety or any other details – this

is a thought experiment and it specifies that the box

is 100% safe and reliable. If anyone won’t press the

button, this has to be for some other reason than

that it might go wrong.

Now ask for a volunteer who said ‘Yes’ and ask

them to explain why. Others can then ask further

questions to work out, for example, why this person

is not worried about having their body completely

destroyed. Do the same with a ‘No’ volunteer. Bear

in mind that people’s reasons for not going may

involve their deepest beliefs about their soul, spirit,

God, or life after death. It is helpful to remember this

even while pushing people hard to explain what they

mean.

After the discussion, find out how many people have

changed their minds. In a course on consciousness, it is

instructive to ask this same question after a few weeks

or months of study, and for this purpose it is helpful for

everyone to keep a record of their answers. They may

change.