Thought Experiment #6 : Parfit’s Teleporter
The last of our Thought Experiments from Wired magazine beams us across science as we consider Parfit’s Teleporter:
Philosopher Derek Parfit is famous for basing thought experiments on sci-fi. In 1984, he envisioned a teleporter malfunction, like the one that made two James T. Kirks in an episode of Star Trek. Teleporters annihilate every particle in you, then rebuild them from scratch. What happens if the original isn’t destroyed? Which is the real you? Parfit says both. Evil Kirk would disagree.
All I know is that I don’t want to see Evil Kirk doing Priceline commercials…it’s hard enough to watch Good Kirk doing them now.
Categories: Science