The original bacteria or cell

dwinton

There has been a lot of talk for a while about cloning and creating robotic replacements for parts of the body. Well I stumbled across The Ship of Theseus Paradox and wondered about that in conjunction with our current questions.

Nobody would doubt that if you have Person A and you replace his arm with a robotic arm he is still Person A. But as you replace more and more does he stay Person A? And what if you use the old biological parts to create a clone, who is the real person?

This really pertains most to neurological enhancement as nobody would claim the Person A's identity is stored in his arm rather than his brain. At what point does he cease being that person? What are your thoughts about this.

Post Script: I would like to bump stumble upon for kicking ass and taking me to the page that was my inspiration for this post.

Gagnar The Unruly

I have a couple points to make:

1) The constituent atoms of your body are changing all the time. Rates of turnover certainly depend on the type of atom (heavy metals once in your body tend to stay there, while carbon and oxygen are constantly being recycled into the atmosphere and nitrogen is disposed of through liquid waste). It also probably depends on where the atoms are. But the basic message is -- the information that makes you you is in the pattern of your molecules, not the molecules themselves.

2) Regarding the points you bring up, I can see that there would be some difficulty determining where you end and the other you begins, once you start cloning, transplanting, etc. I think the lesson of the paradox is that our assumptions are invalid. Your identity may be a fabrication that helps you make sense of your environment, but that doesn't exist as any discretely definable entity. It isn't a 'thing' that can be gained, lost, proportioned, or transferred.

ocalhoun