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Meh. That’s what we do everyday as our body sheds old cells and grows new ones. It’s the ship of Theseus already anyway. The me of yesterday is dead. The me of
by IggleSniggle 7y ago
Meh. That’s what we do everyday as our body sheds old cells and grows new ones. It’s the ship of Theseus already anyway. The me of yesterday is dead. The me of today only believes I am the same.
- WalterBright 7y agoI didn't think brain cells were replaced.
- ptrott2017 7y agoThat used to be the dominant theory - there is now evidence that new cells continue to grow - just the replacement rate slows down as we age. However we still do not really understand the mechanisms of neurogenesis (growth of new brain cells), the interplay with neural stem cells, cellular development dependencies or the pathological mechanisms associated with various diseases such as Alzheimer's. There continue to be new theories, emergent lab work etc but we still have a long long way to go before we have a clear insightful model of the mechanisms involved, never mind a predictive understanding for systemic outcomes.
- shadowprofile77 7y agoNot an expert on the subject at all but to my knowledge not quite. Yes, this applies for most cells in the body but in the case of neurons and glial cells, they stay for decades, so in a real, practical sense, the you of yesteryear is still the you of today right down to the cellular level where it most matters in the brain.
- godelski 7y agoNot only that, there's a difference in repairing a ship over time and swapping out all its parts at once. I'm pretty sure most people would consider the second scenario a new ship.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y agoAnd the whole point of the thought experiment is to show that such a distinction is meaningless.
- godelski 7y agoI'm not quite sure. There's multiple scenarios here. If we upload your consciousness into a computer and you're still alive, then there's multiple entities. If we replace your organs with machinery over time, then there is only a single entity that is changing. The latter is like the ship, but the former is not.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y agoSo by that reasoning, if we upload your consciousness into a computer and make sure we destroy you before we activate it, same difference right? We've just made the "slow replacement" process significantly more efficient.
- godelski 7y agoI'm not sure if you're trolling, willfully missing the point to be contrarian (trolling), or just missing the point. Multiple entities makes a distinction in this thought experiment.
- IggleSniggle 7y agoThis is a really interesting point. From an economic perspective, I’ll say that if there are multiple entities, it dilutes the rarity of the original, and thus it is no longer the same. Destroying the original maintains the entity’s relationship to all external entities, preserving not only the original, but the original’s place in the system.
- WalterBright 7y agoWith cars, there's a distinction between a "restoration" and a "survivor". A survivor hasn't had things done to it other than maintenance. There's debate about where the line is between a "restoration" and a "replica".