The philosopher's axe redux

Jul 02, 2009 08:04

All the way back in 2006, I wrote about the problem of the philosopher's axe: if you replace the shaft, and then later you replace the head, is it still the same axe? So as you can imagine, I was delighted to discover the existence of the Helko modular axe system.



In contrast to my ice-climbing friend, I was interested to note, they think that having to replace the axe's handle is more likely.

But according to the always-interesting Eliezer Yudkowsky, the whole notion of particles having a continuing identity in time makes no sense on a quantum-mechanical level, so the whole question is moot anyway.

philosophy, links, science, ideas

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