So, before I get into this one, I just want to clarify a bit. I still hesitate putting my answer down here, since it is, as I mentioned before, still in it's toddler phase and not complete. You may wonder att his, since I mentioed before that these are questions that my philosphy teacher had broght up years ago. Well the answer is simple. My answer has changed. I didn't even realize it untill I started writing the questions and my answers down. Go figure. So enjoy this one, and as always, I'm down for comments and suggestions.

But what happens if the machine malfunctions? It creates a new body on Mars, but fails to destroy your old body before you wake up. So what's this? Where do you wake up? There is an identical you on the other planet, whichever one you do not to wake up on-is that you too ? Or are you conscious of both people? If you think you are just conscious of one of the yous, should the other one be destroyed?

In order to be able to choose where one would wake up, the assumption is made that you believe in an non-anchored soul. Let me explain what I mean by this: if you don't believe in a soul, but that who you are is made up of only your experiences and memories, and that this can be stored in only the brain, then this Transportation device isn't too much of a stretch for you. However, if you believe in a soul, or a non-physical part of you that makes up either partially or entirely your personality, or what makes you you, then you must believe in a non-anchored soul. That is, one that would not be attached to your body, so that when your body on each is destroyed, your soul would go off and find the new body that was you. So we need to figure out which body is mine, where I woke up, and if the other person is me, and whether one of the bodies should be destroyed. Here is my theory on this matter: although I go back and forth a lot with this, at present I am of the mind that all that encompasses me and makes me who I am is physical-that is, all my memories, thoughts, and emotions, is contained with in my physical brain. I don't believe in a non-physical essence like a soul. This being the case, both bodies are me. I would be conscious in both places, although I would not be conscious of the other's existence unless I were told about them. At the moment the two bodies open their eyes, however, they become different people. This is because if who you are is determined by your experiences, then each body is having a different experience from the moment are aware of their surroundings. It would seem that the longer they are existing and living separate lives, the more different they would become, although they would still both be me. For this reason, if the body on earth could not be destroyed before it gained consciousness, I would not want it to be destroyed later, since at that point I would have had other experiences since going to sleep an hour before.

In my mind, there would be no way that I would consent to something like that unless there was a safe guard against just this sort of thing happening. And I would also have to know for sure how this whole consciousness thing worked for sure-if it's a disembodied soul, then that body there on earth better be long gone before I wake up, and they better hook up some sort of tracking device to my person so my soul can find me. And, if it's an anchored soul, well, I'll be having none of that, since that means that when the original body is destroyed, I am too, although I have some empty shell walking around on Mars. If my current theory is correct, and who I am is entirely embedded in my physicality, then there had better be some way to send into a sort of stasis until my body on Mars has awakened and admitted to being entirely whole. Don't destroy that baby on earth till we know its been done right! Just don't let her wake up on her own: she either gets a drug to wake up or gets destroyed-there will be none of this two mes in existence thing. One is quite enough, thank you very much!