What Are You?

I'm pasting part of a conversation some coworkers and I had yesterday. We were trying to define what "me" is (the body, the soul [if there is one], the consciousness?).

CET:
Just an extention of our previous lunch conversation. Thinking about this gave me a nose bleed, maybe you guys will fare better with it. ;-)

If you get into a Star Trek transporter, your body is taken apart atom by atom and reconstructed by another set of atoms, but in the same pattern. Are you now dead? Is that other person you?

Suppose there's a transporter malfunction. You come out the other side fine, but your patter is also sent back to the original transporter and you are reconstructed. Are either of them you? Which one? Both of them?

MB:
The problem with using the "transporter" in your example is that by definition, the "transporter" in Star Trek doesn't recreate the "set of atoms" at all. It dematerializes matter into the energy pattern (set of atoms), "beams" it to where it needs to go, and then rematerializes it into matter. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transporter_(Star_Trek))

In the case of the malfunction, you would most likely be partially dematerialized or partially rematerialized, which I would think would be similar to losing a limb of your body.

You won't see me getting into a transporter anytime soon. :)

AMAC:
Well, my take is that if we have a soul, then it would be intelligent enough to follow the body it's in.

If we don't have a soul, then perhaps consicousness is just a function of having all the matter and energy compiled in just the exact right way. That means that if the transporter could perfectly reconstruct everything then you'd survive. Otherwise, nature is so complex that the person would probably be reconstructed dead.

If they are reconstructed, they are still conscious, have memories of their life up to that point, and the same personality, then I think it's still "you." That is, if the stream of consciousness continues.

If for some reason they get reconstructed in some imperfect way but are still alive with a completely different personality and a permanently changed consciousness, I think it's not "you" anymore. It wouldn't be much different than your body decomposing and matter being used to become other living things.

Anyone else got thoughts on this?

Amac