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You're asking a question that we've asked ourselves for a millennia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

You're asking a question that we've asked ourselves for a millennia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus Technically, we are not the same people that we were when we were born. The cells in our body have one by one been replaced with new ones and the old ones have died off. The things that make up my body are 100% different than when I was born, so I literally am not the same person, physically. Maybe this is an indicator that there is more to what makes us, us, than just the physical assembly of atoms in our bodies. There are things I don't know that we'll ever get a full understanding of.

prometheus76 2y ago
Categories, numbers, logic, grammar, etc. all map onto physical systems, but aren't necessarily directly linked. This is "metaphysics" in philosophy, and is essential in order to even reason about physical systems. Just the concept of a "physical system" is actually metaphysical, but without metaphysics, you can say nothing to anyone about anything. Metaphysics is just generally taken as a "given", but is worth evaluating itself. Then you'll run into the "realism" vs. "nominalism" debate and you'll understand the philosophical underpinnings of the current culture wars in America.
robbomacrae 2y ago
Perhaps but with a modern/futuristic twist. The cells in our body have one by one been replaced with new ones and the old ones have died off. This is not the case for our "talking" neurons which is what I was trying to limit this thought experiment to. I think a lot more folks would be ok with preserving their biological brain as is within a robot/clone if that was the only option and understand the body gets (mostly) replaced. Although a few in this thread have alluded to the fact we might be missing important relationships with the rest of the body such as the nervous system and gut biome.

prometheus76 2y ago

Categories, numbers, logic, grammar, etc. all map onto physical systems, but aren't necessarily directly linked. This is "metaphysics" in philosophy, and is essential in order to even reason about physical systems. Just the concept of a "physical system" is actually metaphysical, but without metaphysics, you can say nothing to anyone about anything. Metaphysics is just generally taken as a "given", but is worth evaluating itself. Then you'll run into the "realism" vs. "nominalism" debate and you'll understand the philosophical underpinnings of the current culture wars in America.

robbomacrae 2y ago

Perhaps but with a modern/futuristic twist. The cells in our body have one by one been replaced with new ones and the old ones have died off. This is not the case for our "talking" neurons which is what I was trying to limit this thought experiment to. I think a lot more folks would be ok with preserving their biological brain as is within a robot/clone if that was the only option and understand the body gets (mostly) replaced. Although a few in this thread have alluded to the fact we might be missing important relationships with the rest of the body such as the nervous system and gut biome.