There's a philosophical conundrum from antiquity (which name now
escapes me): Suppose you have a seaship. During its years of service,
every time a part breaks it's replaced by a new part. After sufficiently
time has passed, every single part of the original ship has been replaced
with a new part. So the question is: Is it still the same ship?

This question pertains to us really well. It's estimated that every single
molecule and atom in our bodies is recycled every about 7 years. In
other words, there's very few, if any, of the same atoms in your body
than there were 7 years ago.

So the question is: Given that probably you don't have even a single
atom in your body that you had 7 years ago, are you still the same person?

You could argue that even though your body may have been completely
recycled, your memories and thoughts have been retained, and these are
what makes you you.

But consider this: You have two computers that are otherwise completely
identical, except that there's data in the HD of one of the computers,
while the other's HD is empty. The data is now copied to that other
computer, making it identical. Is that other computer now the same one
as the original? Clearly not. It's just a copy of the original. It's not
physically the same.

Considering that, does that mean that I'm just a copy of myself of 7 years
ago? (And not even a perfect copy, because my thoughts and memories have
changed.) My whole body has physically changed so that not even a single
part is the same, and my memories have simply been "transferred" along.

So am I still the same person, or am I simply an (incomplete) copy of that
person?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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