Well, lets make this interesting then.
Suppose that, by magic and in an instant, there are a number of exact copies of you created somewhere that looks exactly like your current environment. And suppose that, by magic, the brain state of all those copies is kept completely in sync I.E. D2 is the same between all of them.
Is there a single consciousness or multiple ones?
Still a bit hazy, as scenarios go. When you say "
looks exactly like your current environment", that is not enough. It must function exactly like your current environment (or rather, to be consistent, like your current environment will be at time 2 and on). If there is a distinguishable difference, your magic scenario is tainted. So... your scenario here turns out to be the multiverse theory, essentially. In that case, of course, it is logically impossible for anyone to know that they are in universe A or universe B, since their universe is described by everything detectable. If there is an observer, there are not two universes, but one, and a displacement in some dimension or other in order to tell the differences among the multiple "uni"verses (which are not at all separate, but part of a single multiverse).
The other option I can see arrives at the same place--that is, you simply assert from the beginning that it is not exactly the same, but straightforwardly differs, even if only in time-space coordinates and not in any manner we can detect other than coordinates.
Either way (and if there are other options, please share them--I can only think of these two at present), it would appear that you have several separate individuals
relative to your magical observer. To the extent that "consciousness" is a meaningful term, there would be one consciousness per person. Each, after all, is aware of his/her surroundings, can think, can remember, can do all the things anyone else can. If you interacted with any of them, you would say each was conscious, without having to reference any of the others. If you have no access to the others (as my first interpretation), you would not have access to the others to have reference to them anyway.
I would say that there is a single one, since there is a single instance of D2 between all of them.
One copy of a book is the same book as another copy of that book? I can burn my own flag, but can be jailed if I burn the one flying over the White House. Why? They only differ in location. And, frankly, differing in time-space coordinates is plenty difference to differentiate among individuals meaningfully.
And if that is correct, then killing any number of them (instantaneously of course) would not change anything. D2 would continue in a single instance just like it always has.
So you think the words are important, but not the book. Once I have it backed up digitally, I can burn the first folio Shakespeare at the Huntington? Oh, I am sure it is just sentimentality--there is no logical reason not to. And the guy you are going to instantaneously kill is only sentimentally attached to his consciousness.
Do you disagree with any of that, Darat/Mercutio?
Only the words. I don't have much problem with the spaces.
Remember, in the first interpretation, no one can tell that there are multiverses. That may, of course, be our current situation. You could kill yourself now (note to mods--I am actively advocating suicide) and in some other part of our multiverse, your exact copy carries on. Of course, that doesn't do much for the friends and family of your copy here, but that is mere sentimentality, and is illogical and we shouldn't consider it.
