AZPaul3 writes:
For the sake of the OP let me take two cases ...
If the experiences are different, since I have no such memories and appear to share no connection to whatever experiences the doppelganger experiences, then the doppelganger is not me but experiences his own life, consciousness and all, outside any knowledge or connection to me.
Assuming memory and experiences are encoded chemically/electrically in the human body (that is, no supernatural element), then in the example I used previously the experiences are identical between the two individuals and this first case is not applicable.
AZPaul3 writes:
If, however, my doppelganger and I share the exact same consciousness and experiences in every detail from the most significant to the most mundane then my death becomes his death and “we” no longer exist.
If you are the same at the time of death then that is true. If you are the same at some point before the death of one, then it does not follow that the other dies as well. Consider a person named Joe A on March the 12th, 2009 at 12:09 pm. On March the 12th, 2009 at 12:11 pm, an entity with an almost identical electrochemical makeup to Joe A, existing in an almost identical place (we'd usually call him the same person, but let's be more general and call him Joe B) gets run over by a cement mixer and is no longer "living". That which is Joe A may exist elsewhere in the universe, and we would call him "living". So may Joe B, who is not "living".
AZPaul3 writes:
As an atheist, what is death?
One of the reasons I started this thread was because this is an idea I wanted to explore. It's way too hard for me to wrap my mind around right now, though, and my brain is already fried from work, so I think I'll have to punt on this one. It's almost as hard as the related question, "what is life"?