Money isn’t restricted by borders, so why are people? | Giles Fraser: Loose canon
Theresa May won't be around in the early 22nd century when, according to Star Trek at least, Dr Emory Erickson will have invented the transporter - a device that will be able to dematerialise a person into an energy pattern, beam them to another place or planet, and then rematerialise them back again. In such a world people will be able to move as quickly and freely as an email.
The philosopher Derek Parfit has rightly questioned whether such a thing is even philosophically possible: will the rematerialised person be the same person as the dematerialised one, or just a perfect copy. (What would happen if two copies of me were rematerialised? Would they both be me?) Parfit thus raises a fascinating philosophical question about what we mean by personal identity - or what makes me me.
Continue reading...