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Originally Posted by Meier_Link
I saw a cartoon with a similar premise a while back. It was late when I saw it, but it was really a trip. There was a professor explaining how his teleportation machine worked to a little girl. He explained that it made an exact copy and then destroyed the original. He demonstrated it several times. She refused to use it and posed the question, "What if you use it and wait for 5 minutes to destroy the original?" The professor agreed that this would be fine also and proceeded to make another copy. 5 minutes rolls around and the 2 professors argue over who now has to die. Eventually the original is killed, but the professor no longer fells that his machine is a success.
I've actually spent the last 15 minutes googling trying to figure it out. If anyone is still reading this thread and knows what I am talking about, I would love to know what the name of that cartoon is.
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I have not seen the cartoon that you speak of, but I do understand the point you are trying to make. However, it is completely understandable why "the original" would not wish to die. He has had new thoughts, new experiences, new memories, and hence he is now a
different person to who has stepped out of the other side of the teleporter. So from a self-interested perspective, he would have no reason to allow himself to come to harm.
To understand my view on this better, the chess game analogy which I used above is a useful light to see it in. Two "copies" of a single chess game are really
the same chess game as long as they are subjected to the same influences (players making moves). It is only when the influences
diverge that the "two" chess games actually become seperate disctinct entities.