Spooky Transplant Stuff
Back when a cubicle was my dwelling, a buddy of mine posed the following question to me: “Let’s say you have new sea-faring ship called ‘Bessie’. Each year, a member of the crew retires, and a new member is brought on. Over a hundred years, the original crew and many in between have come and gone. They all repair the ship, replacing plank after wooden plank. Years later, there is no original crew member, and no original part of that ship. It looks the same. They still call it ‘Bessie’ … but … is it in fact still ‘Bessie’?”
Kind of a curious identity question. I wonder if I’ll be pondering that when Earth is over-run with cyborgs.
Liberty on April 14th 2008 in General Crap
Robb Allen responded on 14 Apr 2008 at 1:15 pm #
The same thing can be said about your body. Each cell eventually dies and is replaced.
In a few years, are you even you?
Liberty responded on 14 Apr 2008 at 1:42 pm #
I’d hope so. If not, someone else has been picking my nose and scratching my butt in the morning.
AlanDP responded on 14 Apr 2008 at 3:49 pm #
I was going to leave a different comment but your reply has me laughing too hard.
Robb Allen responded on 15 Apr 2008 at 10:13 am #
Yeah, I had something about pleasuring one’s self as a form of cheating, but I just couldn’t put it together right.
existingthing responded on 17 Apr 2008 at 3:53 pm #
Since we are the sum of our experiences, are we the same people we were 10 years ago? Or after we have a life/perspective changing event? There’s the rub.