Soliciting Opinons and Waxing Philosophically
What makes you You?
If you woke up tomorrow with Superpowers, would you consider yourself the same person?
What about StarTrek style teleporters... Yes, a duplicate is made but in a very real way the atoms and electrical patterns that made up "You" will have ceased to exist... Or, what about when "atmospheric anomalies" split you in two? Which Commander Riker is the "real"/"original"? It would seem that if neither is strictly and clearly "real" then neither is...
For that matter, if you're one of those people who recover from brain death (interupting what would otherwise be mental continuity) are you really the same person? It seems to me an appropriate analogy would be a fire... If you put it out, and then relight the fuel it's hard to defend as the same fire you started with...
I'm not sure, but I'd like your opinion... So far I've come to the conclusion that if Douglas Adams were still around he'd probably have offered some light on the matter, being one of those deep thoughts he so loved boiling down to the absurd essence...
If you woke up tomorrow with Superpowers, would you consider yourself the same person?
What about StarTrek style teleporters... Yes, a duplicate is made but in a very real way the atoms and electrical patterns that made up "You" will have ceased to exist... Or, what about when "atmospheric anomalies" split you in two? Which Commander Riker is the "real"/"original"? It would seem that if neither is strictly and clearly "real" then neither is...
For that matter, if you're one of those people who recover from brain death (interupting what would otherwise be mental continuity) are you really the same person? It seems to me an appropriate analogy would be a fire... If you put it out, and then relight the fuel it's hard to defend as the same fire you started with...
I'm not sure, but I'd like your opinion... So far I've come to the conclusion that if Douglas Adams were still around he'd probably have offered some light on the matter, being one of those deep thoughts he so loved boiling down to the absurd essence...