Prompt:
Alphabet Inc. (Google’s parent company) has engineered a teleportation device that allows users to travel across the galaxy in nanoseconds. The teleportation device works by perfectly replicating your physical composition, atom by atom.
Questions have been raised regarding whether one’s “soul” also gets replicated. According to congressional representative Anita Herndandez, “There is more to the self than our physical composition—How do I know that the “me” entering the teleporter is the same “me” that ends up on the other end?”
However, Alphabet Inc has assured users that there is no need to worry: what matters is that your atoms (and thus, your memories) travel to the other end of the teleportation device.
In a paper, discuss the following:
What Descartes would think about the teleportation device and selfhood.
What the Buddha would think about the teleportation device and selfhood.
Whether you personally think the “you” that enters the teleporter is the same “you” that leaves. Explain and argue for your position using Parts 1 and 2.
Readings that should be cited:
Descartes, Meditations I and II
The Buddha, “False Doctrines about the Soul”, in Voices of Wisdom, edited by Gary E. Kessler. Cengage, 2016.
The Buddha, “The Simile of the Chariot” in Voices of Wisdom, edited by Gary E. Kessler. Cengage, 2016.
