In 'Simple Teletransportation', where the original person is destroyed and an exactly similar organic Replica is created elsewhere who remembers the original’s life, many people naturally regard this as merely a fast way of travelling and take the Replica to be the same person as the original.

By Derek Parfit, from Les raisons et les personnes

Key Arguments

  • Parfit describes the simple case: 'the Scanner destroys my brain and body. My blueprint is beamed to Mars, where another machine makes an organic Replica of me', and the Replica 'thinks that he is me, and he seems to remember living my life up to the moment when I pressed the green button.'
  • He emphasises complete similarity: 'In every other way, both physically and psychologically, we are exactly similar. If he returned to Earth, everyone would think that he was me.'
  • He notes that in the science‑fiction context, 'Simple Teletransportation, as just described, is a common feature in science fiction. And it is believed, by some readers of this fiction, merely to be the fastest way of travelling. They believe that my Replica would be me.'
  • The destruction of the original before replication—'I am destroyed before I am Replicated'—helps explain why this is more readily seen as a case of survival or travel.

Source Quotes

75. SIMPLE TELETRANSPORTATION AND THE BRANCH-LINE CASE At the beginning of my story, the Scanner destroys my brain and body. My blueprint is beamed to Mars, where another machine makes an organic Replica of me. My Replica thinks that he is me, and he seems to remember living my life up to the moment when I pressed the green button.
My blueprint is beamed to Mars, where another machine makes an organic Replica of me. My Replica thinks that he is me, and he seems to remember living my life up to the moment when I pressed the green button. In every other way, both physically and psychologically, we are exactly similar.
My Replica thinks that he is me, and he seems to remember living my life up to the moment when I pressed the green button. In every other way, both physically and psychologically, we are exactly similar. If he returned to Earth, everyone would think that he was me. Simple Teletransportation, as just described, is a common feature in science fiction.
If he returned to Earth, everyone would think that he was me. Simple Teletransportation, as just described, is a common feature in science fiction. And it is believed, by some readers of this fiction, merely to be the fastest way of travelling. They believe that my Replica would be me. Other science fiction readers, and some of the characters in this fiction, take a different view.
Even so, I shall soon lose consciousness, forever. In Simple Teletransportation, I am destroyed before I am Replicated. This makes it easier to believe that this is a way of travelling—that my Replica is me. At the end of my story, my life and that of my Replica overlap.

Key Concepts

  • At the beginning of my story, the Scanner destroys my brain and body. My blueprint is beamed to Mars, where another machine makes an organic Replica of me.
  • My Replica thinks that he is me, and he seems to remember living my life up to the moment when I pressed the green button.
  • In every other way, both physically and psychologically, we are exactly similar. If he returned to Earth, everyone would think that he was me.
  • Simple Teletransportation, as just described, is a common feature in science fiction. And it is believed, by some readers of this fiction, merely to be the fastest way of travelling. They believe that my Replica would be me.
  • In Simple Teletransportation, I am destroyed before I am Replicated. This makes it easier to believe that this is a way of travelling—that my Replica is me.

Context

Opening of Section 75, where Parfit describes the 'Simple Teletransportation' case and reports how some science‑fiction readers understand it, setting up an intuitive contrast with cases where the original is not destroyed.