Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

Where was I? 235It enables most of the bodily motions of the human to be duplicated exactly andsimultaneously by the robot while the various pressures and resistances encountered bythe limbs of the robot are duplicated for the corresponding human limbs.The NASA scientists, instead of splitting me up, as they had split up Dennett,would leave me entire. I would stay back in Houston, all of me, and without suffering anyeffects from radiation would control a robot on its underground mission. The scientistsassumed that, unlike Dennett, I would not be distracted from the primary purpose of themission by abstruse philosophical questions about my location. Little did they know.Dennett mentions laboratory workers who handle dangerous materials byoperating feedback-controlled mechanical arms and hands. I was to be like them, only Iwould be operating a feedback-controlled entire body with prosthetic hearing, seeing, andfeeling. Although it might be as if I were deep in the tunnel under Tulsa, I would knowperfectly well where I really was, safe in the laboratory wearing earphones and evevideosand skintact and MARS membrane, and speaking into a microphone.It turned out, however, that once I was all rigged up, I could not resist theinclination to locate myself in the location of the robot. Just as Dennett wanted to see hisbrain, I wanted to see myself swathed in my electronic garments. And just as Dennett haddifficulty identifying himself with his brain, I had difficulty identifying myself as thebody that moved its head every time the robot moved its head and moved its legs in awalking motion as the robot walked around the laboratory.Following Dennett's example, I began naming things. I used "Sanford" as Dennettused "Dennett" so that the questions "Where was l?" and "Where was Sanford?" shouldreceive the same answer. My first name, "David," served as a name for the mostlysaltwater and carbon compound body being cared for in Houston. My middle name,"Hawley," served for a while as the name of the robot.The general principle Where Hawley goes, there goes Sanford obviously will notdo. The robot that first walked around David while David made walking motions andturned its head as David turned his head is now in a highly classified science museum,and Sanford is not.Also, the robot could be controlled by some other flesh-and-blood body before,and after, it was controlled by David. If Sanford ever went where Hawley went, I did soonly when Hawley was in communication with David or a David replica in at least someof the ways that have been described. Dennett's first principle, Where Hamlet goes, theregoes Dennett, needs analogous qualification., My attempt to name the robot "Hawley" ran into difficulties when