4 ms·

ah man I really wanted to be a new person

by joshuaturner 1y ago

g0db1t 1y ago
[dead]
daxfohl 1y ago
A body's atoms do completely recycle every 5-7 years though. 98 percent are recycled annually. Weird.
- darkr 1y ago
  Incorrect
  - daxfohl 1y ago
    I thought so too, but it seems reasonable considering we're 70% water, much of it flowing and actively taking stuff out and around. Plus cells are apparently way more dynamic than is typically conveyed in high school bio (I think there was a quantamagazine article a while ago). So it's perhaps surprising that a body's atoms aren't fully recycled even faster than that.
    - gus_massa 1y ago
      IANAMD. IANAB. Let's guess anyway: The Ca in bones is probably renewed very slowly. C H O N very fast, in particular water. Na, K and Cl are very soluble and also get renew very fast. Some rare elements like I are probably reused a lot and renewed very slowly. I'm not sure about P, my hand waving is confused. Assuming a burger per day, we ate our weight in meat every few years, but I'm not sure if all the Fe is absorved in and exchanged for the internal one.
malux85 1y ago
Then just believe it, Abstract thing A you can never measure gives you joy and renewal Abstract thing B you can never measure holds you back and limits you The practical difference is zero or near zero, so go and be joyful and happy!
scoofy 1y ago
It doesn’t matter whether the cells actually change. The persistence of the self, and even consciousness itself, are very possibly an illusion.
- jstanley 1y ago
  Consciousness is the only thing that can not possibly be an illusion. Whenever this comes up I have to wonder if half the people are secretly p-zombies and actually genuinely aren't sure whether consciousness is an illusion because they've never experienced it? I know that's not a very charitable take but I just can't see how any conscious being could imagine that consciousness could be an illusion! Consciousness isn't the illusion, consciousness is the audience!
  - pcthrowaway 1y ago
    The person above meant "the persistence of consciousness" Yes, we are conscious (or at least I am, I'm assuming y'all are too). But consciousness isn't static. My consciousness today is not my consciousness of 5 years ago.
    - sage92 1y ago
      Begs the question: by what metric are you using to track the change/staticity? I don’t see how one can concretely come to the conclusion of whether it changes or stays the same, when the presence of consciousness itself is a prerequisite of making that very claim
      - pcthrowaway 1y ago
        Well if you believe there's something magical about consciousness I could see why you'd believe the same person's consciousness at different points in time is the same consciousness. If you believe consciousness is a function of sentience and self-awareness, and presumably that AI can one day be conscious (not saying it is right now), then I don't see how you can believe consciousness is persistent. If the AI is copied/moved to a different server, is it the same consciousness? Or in Star Trek when you get beamed up are you the same consciousness?

ah man I really wanted to be a new person

g0db1t 1y ago

[dead]

daxfohl 1y ago

A body's atoms do completely recycle every 5-7 years though. 98 percent are recycled annually. Weird.

darkr 1y ago
Incorrect
- daxfohl 1y ago
  I thought so too, but it seems reasonable considering we're 70% water, much of it flowing and actively taking stuff out and around. Plus cells are apparently way more dynamic than is typically conveyed in high school bio (I think there was a quantamagazine article a while ago). So it's perhaps surprising that a body's atoms aren't fully recycled even faster than that.
  - gus_massa 1y ago
    IANAMD. IANAB. Let's guess anyway: The Ca in bones is probably renewed very slowly. C H O N very fast, in particular water. Na, K and Cl are very soluble and also get renew very fast. Some rare elements like I are probably reused a lot and renewed very slowly. I'm not sure about P, my hand waving is confused. Assuming a burger per day, we ate our weight in meat every few years, but I'm not sure if all the Fe is absorved in and exchanged for the internal one.

malux85 1y ago

Then just believe it, Abstract thing A you can never measure gives you joy and renewal Abstract thing B you can never measure holds you back and limits you The practical difference is zero or near zero, so go and be joyful and happy!

scoofy 1y ago

It doesn’t matter whether the cells actually change. The persistence of the self, and even consciousness itself, are very possibly an illusion.

jstanley 1y ago
Consciousness is the only thing that can not possibly be an illusion. Whenever this comes up I have to wonder if half the people are secretly p-zombies and actually genuinely aren't sure whether consciousness is an illusion because they've never experienced it? I know that's not a very charitable take but I just can't see how any conscious being could imagine that consciousness could be an illusion! Consciousness isn't the illusion, consciousness is the audience!
- pcthrowaway 1y ago
  The person above meant "the persistence of consciousness" Yes, we are conscious (or at least I am, I'm assuming y'all are too). But consciousness isn't static. My consciousness today is not my consciousness of 5 years ago.
  - sage92 1y ago
    Begs the question: by what metric are you using to track the change/staticity? I don’t see how one can concretely come to the conclusion of whether it changes or stays the same, when the presence of consciousness itself is a prerequisite of making that very claim
    - pcthrowaway 1y ago
      Well if you believe there's something magical about consciousness I could see why you'd believe the same person's consciousness at different points in time is the same consciousness. If you believe consciousness is a function of sentience and self-awareness, and presumably that AI can one day be conscious (not saying it is right now), then I don't see how you can believe consciousness is persistent. If the AI is copied/moved to a different server, is it the same consciousness? Or in Star Trek when you get beamed up are you the same consciousness?