I think option B is correct.
I believe that A is correct.
Because you can just backup and then copy paste into a clone, it isn't you.
Why not? I think that if this happened, there would be 2 of you. Now the two of you would start having different experiences and you two would develop into different beings, the same way we are constantly developing into different "us" as time passes and the environment we are in changes us both physically and mentally.
I also don't believe that consciousness truly exists.
What do you mean? How can consciousness not exist?
Well think you're just copied.
You are you, you can see the other you in front of you, you can't feel see or hear anything from his senses, therefore you are not him.
Now for whatever reason you die. the other you still exists, he is a replica but he is not you, or should I say, you are not him, you stopped sensing, hearing, feeling, you are dead.
Therefore no, a replica is not *you*, it is a copy of you, but it won't save you from dying, the idea is just silly.
It is almost as silly as "living through the offsprings".
As for consciousness , we are just biological robots, there is nothing magical or special like consciousness, we feel and sense through our senses.
Our thoughts are just chemical processes.
I am not sure how much choice we *really* have in life, we may seem to have a choice because we believe that we are thinking and choosing.
But isn't that just a biological thing? it might be a bit more loose so we do have some choice, as an organism.
But consciousness is no where in this formula, there is no spirit in the body, there is just a bio-robot, simple as that.
In order to clarify my position and explain why I feel that a copy of me is still me, perhaps it will help if I explain how I understand the universe to work.
To begin, while superstring theory is not yet proven I do feel it explains our universe in a pretty comprehensive and to me, fairly straightforward manner. Superstring theory in its simplest terms states that only energy is “real”. Regardless of the kind of energy, at it’s basics energy is energy is energy. Every kind of energy is vibration that occurs in the superstring.
Whether there is one superstring, many superstrings, or no superstrings, is somewhat irrelevant. The vibrational energy “behaves” as if it is vibrating on a looped string, so it makes a convenient visualization to look at the basic structure of the universe as a matrix of strings packed in a regular grid array, all of them vibrating to a greater or lesser degree,
Now, since these strings are multidimensional, and vibrate in many more than 3 dimensions, the energy vibrating in them is also multidimensional. All elementary particles are simply vibrations in the string. Stable particles such as electrons, neutrons, and protons are vibrations which are static, in other words they are a vibration in a frequency which is some multiple of the diameter of the string, so that the wave form is a self reinforcing sine. All other particles are a non stable wave frequency, so that their wave form cancels itself out in short order. Also since the strings are extremely close together, the vibrations of one string will also cause the strings around it to vibrate as well, so any particle can be looked at as a group of strings, all vibrating in the same frequency. Because the energy freely travels from string to string, it is impossible to state exactly which string is THE string which initiated the vibration, and so we have indeterminacy.
Thus, we can look at any particle not only as a particle, which it is because it exists on a given string, but as a wave form, because the energy is resonating between many strings at once.
Therefore, the simplest way to look at a particle is as a spherical Field of Probability, basically a sphere-like bulls eye. In the center you have the zone of 100% likelihood , the group of strings in which the energy exists, surrounded by zones of decreasing likelihood, following an inverse logarithmic formula. Thus the field extends to infinity, but is strongest in the immediate vicinity of particle. As every particle has this field of probability, every particle has some effect on every other particle, though this effect is negligible over any significant distance.
I could at this point go on into applying this to the structure of the universe, but the point I wish to illustrate is that when viewed from this perspective, it becomes pretty obvious that the energy in superstrings is arrayed in PATTERNS. These simple patterns are the basic building blocks of everything in the universe, and it is these patterns that can basically be viewed in much the same way as binary code, in other words as the programming language of the universe.
Everything that exists is composed of these patterns, connected together in varying degrees of complexity. Just as 0 and 1’s are used to build enormously complex computer programs, our universe uses the patterns of Positive Negative and Neutral as a trinary code to build the infinite complexity we see all around us. Everything we see, feel, experience, and think, is a result of arrangements of the trinary code. As such, it becomes obvious that the Universe exists as an unimaginably vast quantum computer, in which every state is calculated from the result of every previous state.
To me, as a computer program existing inside this marvelous machine, it is obvious that my consciousness is a result of the massively complex program of trinary data which holds an enormous amount of vibrational energy into a very precise pattern. It is this pattern which produces the emergent phenomena of my self awareness. I am a program who is aware if itself as a program inside the machine.
And like any program, I am composed of an enormous number of smaller subroutines, most of which are common to any other program in the machine. Only two things make me unique: the basic subroutine which produces the hardware on which I run, my DNA, and the actual program which processes data, my consciousness. Like a java program, my DNA creates a virtual platform which interfaces with the true hardware of the universe, on which the real me runs. I currently need this virtual platform, because without it, my program cannot run, but this platform is imperfect, it is filled with numerous bugs and less than optimal subroutines, all of which tend to accumulate errors as the universe continues to calculate its never-ending quantum state. As such, while it is adequate to run my consciousness, it can only do so for a limited time before accumulated errors causes a systems crash.
Unfortunately, since my data is stored and processed solely within this virtual machine, when the machine crashes, my data is erased. While it is possible that some elements of my program may survive as random code in the universal database and be incorporated in another program somewhere, the unique accumulation of patterned data which is my consciousness will not. When the hardware goes, I lose everything.
However, since I AM a program, if my data is saved, and transferred to a new virtual machine, my program will continue to function uninterrupted, just the same as if I transferred the contents of my hard drive from an old computer to a new one.
Therefore, the truly UNIQUE part of ME is the Consciousness program. And regardless of what platform it runs on, so long as it continues intact, I WILL EXIST.