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Personal Identity

Future Great Pain Test

(Work In Progress: output at 15/01/2026 19:30:43)

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. This is a test invented by Bernard Williams in "Williams (Bernard) - The Self and the Future" though the actual terminology seems to be due to Peter Unger.
  2. It is a means of teasing out whether or not we really think – either by Intuition² or through some convoluted reasoning – that we will be some future individual³. It is cashed out in terms of the prospect of “being mercilessly tortured in the morning”.
  3. If we think that the unfortunate individual will be us, our attitude will be qualitatively different to if we think it will be someone else (though maybe there are exceptions – mothers and their children, maybe – but even there, it may depend on what is to happen – reference Winston Smith and the rats in Room 101 in "Orwell (George), Davison (Peter), Taylor (D.J.), Ed. - Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Annotated Edition" – Wikipedia: Ministries of Nineteen Eighty-Four - Room 101).
  4. Of course, while this may tease out what we think will be the case in any situation, this doesn’t imply that it will be the case. Lots of people think that teletransportation⁴, were it to be technically feasible, would be a form of travel, rather than death⁵ and duplication⁶. I happen to think their view mistaken. But it either is or isn’t irrespective of anyone’s view. If I was forced to go through the procedure and found my First Person Perspective⁷ persisted – as only I could know₈ – I’d change my mind, and my philosophy of PID.
  5. In my view, this is important when alloyed to the FPP⁹ in rebuffing Parfit¹⁰’s view that identity doesn’t matter¹¹ in survival¹². The footnote earlier raises epistemological worries, but the metaphysical certainty remains.

References

• Relevant Works cited above:
  1. "Williams (Bernard) - The Self and the Future", 1999, Write-Up Note¹³, Annotations, Internal PDF Link, Read
• For a Page of Links¹⁴ to this Note, Click here.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read¹⁵, include the following:-
  • Aeon:
    1. "Frankish (Keith) - What do you really believe? Take the Truth-Demon Test", 2018, External Link, Internal PDF Link
  • General:
    1. "Funkhouser (Eric) - Notes on Williams, 'The Self and the Future'", 2014, External Link, Internal PDF Link
    2. "Orwell (George), Davison (Peter), Taylor (D.J.), Ed. - Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Annotated Edition", Book
    3. "Unger (Peter) - Investigating Our Beliefs About Ourselves", 1992, Note: See Section 10.
    4. "Unger (Peter) - The Survival of the Sentient", 2000, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    5. "Williams (Bernard) - The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality", 1999, Internal PDF Link
    6. "Williams (Bernard) - The Self and the Future", 1999, Write-Up Note¹⁶, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
    7. "Zimmerman (Dean) - Video: Does God Know Our First-Person Perspectives?", 2015, Note: Maybe …
• A further reading list might start with:-
  • General:
    1. "Cerullo (Michael A.) - Uploading and Branching Identity", 2015, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read = 133%
    2. "Shoemaker (Sydney) - Thinking Animals Without Animalism", 2016, Read = 33%

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• For a list of Works that have been considered, but have missed the cut for inclusion in this Section of my Thesis, see the following:-
  1. Read: No items to list.
  2. Further Reading: No items to list.
• This is mostly a place-holder¹⁷.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 8:

1. Oh dear! I’m now uncertain about this! Maybe this is a good thing, from an Animalist perspective. Or not.
2. The point is that – after a period of unconsciousness – say normal sleep – when I awake can I really be sure that it’s I who awake, or merely that whoever it is in my bed awakes.
3. That it is I in my bed can only really be ascertained by reference to third parties, who assure me that there has been no intervention (so I’ve not been replaced by a simulacrum complete with my memories).
4. Of course, in the current state of technology, such worries would be highly irrational.

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Table of the Previous 7 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
06/07/2023 00:43:12	3125	Future Great Pain Test
20/09/2022 11:24:00	2898	Future Great Pain Test
12/05/2022 21:27:22	2517	Future Great Pain Test
12/02/2021 15:44:38	2246	Future Great Pain Test
25/09/2020 20:15:22	1896	Future Great Pain Test
25/02/2018 23:36:58	2587	Future Great Pain Test
18/12/2010 19:58:05	621	Future Great Pain Test

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
04/02/2026 07:08:33	Future Great Pain Test	Thought Experiments

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Death	Duplication	First-Person Perspective	I
Individual	Intuition	Note Links Explanation	Parfit	Plug Note Apologia
Sleep	Survival	Teletransportation	What Matters	Williams - The Self and the Future
Works Read - Explanation

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Summary of Notes Citing This Note

Baker - Materialism with a Human Face	Body	First-Person Perspective	Olson - What Are We? Animals, 2	Person
PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3	Teletransportation	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What are We?)	Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)	Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It)
Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Thesis - Current Stance	Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note

Author	Title	Medium	Extra Links	Read?
Cerullo (Michael A.)	Uploading and Branching Identity	Paper
Frankish (Keith)	What do you really believe? Take the Truth-Demon Test	Paper		Yes
Kingma (Elselijn)	Were You Part of Your Mother?	Paper		Yes
Lockwood (Michael)	When Does a Life Begin?	Paper		Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? Animals	Paper	2	Yes
Shoemaker (Sydney)	Thinking Animals Without Animalism	Paper
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Body	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What Are We?)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Current Position	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - First-Person Perspective	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Person	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Teletransportation	Paper		Yes
Unger (Peter)	Investigating Our Beliefs About Ourselves	Paper		Yes
Unger (Peter)	The Survival of the Sentient	Paper	2	Yes
Williams (Bernard)	The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality	Paper		Yes
Zimmerman (Dean)	Video: Does God Know Our First-Person Perspectives?	Paper		Yes

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Baker (Lynne Rudder)	Materialism with a Human Face	Paper - Referencing	Corcoran - Soul, Body and Survival, Chapter 10	Yes
Blatti (Stephan) & Snowdon (Paul), Eds.	Animalism: New Essays on Persons, Animals, and Identity	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	22%
Blatti (Stephan) & Snowdon (Paul), Eds.	Animalism: New Essays on Persons, Animals, and Identity	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	22%
Cerullo (Michael A.)	Uploading and Branching Identity	Paper - Cited	Minds & Machines (2015) 25:17–36	78%
Cerullo (Michael A.)	Uploading and Branching Identity	Paper - Referencing	Minds & Machines (2015) 25:17–36	78%
Corcoran (Kevin), Ed.	Soul, Body and Survival: Essays on the Metaphysics of Human Persons	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	99%
Frankish (Keith)	What do you really believe? Take the Truth-Demon Test	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 19 January, 2018	Yes
Funkhouser (Eric)	Metaphysics, Spring 2014	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	94%
Funkhouser (Eric)	Notes on Williams, 'The Self and the Future'	Paper - Cited	Funkhouser (Eric) - Metaphysics, Spring 2014	Yes
Hains (Brigid) & Hains (Paul)	Aeon: C-F	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	51%
Kingma (Elselijn)	Were You Part of Your Mother?	Paper - Referencing	Mind, Volume 128, Issue 511, July 2019, Pages 609–646	Yes
Lockwood (Michael)	When Does a Life Begin?	Paper - Referencing	Lockwood - Moral Dilemmas in Modern Medicine, 1987	Yes
Lockwood (Michael), Ed.	Moral Dilemmas in Modern Medicine	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	29%
Olson (Eric)	What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? Animals	Paper - Referencing	What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology, Chapter 2 (November 2007: Oxford University Press.)	Yes
Orwell (George), Davison (Peter), Taylor (D.J.), Ed.	Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Annotated Edition	Book - Cited	Orwell (George), Davison (Peter), Taylor (D.J.), Ed. - Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Annotated Edition	Yes
Shoemaker (Sydney)	Thinking Animals Without Animalism	Paper - Cited	Blatti & Snowdon - Animalism: New Essays on Persons, Animals, and Identity, 2016: Part I, Chapter 6, pp. 128-141	33%
Shoemaker (Sydney)	Thinking Animals Without Animalism	Paper - Referencing	Blatti & Snowdon - Animalism: New Essays on Persons, Animals, and Identity, 2016: Part I, Chapter 6, pp. 128-141	33%
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Future Great Pain Test	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes
Unger (Peter)	Identity, Consciousness and Value	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Unger (Peter)	Investigating Our Beliefs About Ourselves	Paper - Cited	Unger - Identity, Consciousness and Value, Chapter 1	Yes
Unger (Peter)	The Survival of the Sentient	Paper - Cited	Philosophical Perspectives, Vol. 14, Oct2000, p325, 24p	Yes
Williams (Bernard)	Problems of the Self	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	37%
Williams (Bernard)	Problems of the Self	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	37%
Williams (Bernard)	The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality	Paper - Cited	Williams - Problems of the Self	Yes
Williams (Bernard)	The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality	Paper - Referencing	Williams - Problems of the Self	Yes
Williams (Bernard)	The Self and the Future	Paper - Cited	Williams - Problems of the Self	Yes
Zimmerman (Dean)	Video: Does God Know Our First-Person Perspectives?	Paper - Cited	YouTube; accessed August 2015. Interview at the Templeton Conference on Analytic Philosophy of Religion, Munich 2012.	Yes

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Text Colour Conventions

1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026

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