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nanocyber | 10 years ago

The answer depends on perspective and subjectivity. If I took the ship across the ocean last year, and now I take the fully-parts-replaced version this year, I'm still calling it by the same name. In my mind it is "same", unless I decide to get especially academic about it. It is both same and not-same. Meh. Not the most interesting of paradoxes. ;)

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electricblue|10 years ago

Its more interesting when you consider how it applies to living beings. If I replace every part of a dog with cybernetics, is it still the same dog? At what point does it stop being the same dog? The brain? The nervous system? Other various senses? How much of identity is tied up in how a creature perceives its environment? What happens to the creature when we alter that perception or enhance it?

jheriko|10 years ago

is identity even real? such thinking can be construed as a 'reductio ad absurdum' argument that it is not...

how can we even tell if it is a concrete concept? its very poorly defined to begin with too...

njharman|10 years ago

> The answer depends on perspective and subjectivity.

And therein lies the entire discipline of Philosophy.