Eternal Journey in the Space of Possible Minds solves Copies Problem

A new theoretical framework titled 'Eternal Journey in the Space of Possible Minds,' proposed by researcher avturchin, tackles the long-standing philosophical 'copy problem' in AI and transhumanism. The problem asks: if multiple perfect copies of a mind are created—through mind uploading or advanced AI—which one, if any, retains the original's conscious identity? The theory posits that due to quantum immortality (the idea that a conscious observer always finds themselves in a timeline where they survive) and the extreme improbability of one mind's state transforming into another's, consciousness can, over an eternal timescale, journey through the entire functional space of all possible minds.

This journey isn't random; it first passes through the 'nearest' and most similar minds. The core innovation is the proposal of a numerical, though currently incomputable, metric to measure the 'distance' between minds. This allows for comparing which of several fundamentally different copies (e.g., a digital upload vs. a biological clone) a person's stream of consciousness would become first. The theory works under two major competing views of personal identity: one requiring only identical mental states and another requiring continuity of consciousness, offering pathways for identity transfer through mechanisms like state tunneling or merging.

The framework's primary practical application is in evaluating life extension and mind-uploading technologies. By providing a theoretical basis for predicting identity continuity, it aims to inform choices between different methods of achieving digital immortality. While the calculations are currently hyper-astronomical and not practically solvable, the theory establishes a comparative logic for a problem that has long been a philosophical roadblock for futurists and AI ethicists considering a post-biological future.