Some mind experiments on sense of self, identity, and death

[Armadillo]

Ok, so, I'm pretty fucked up RN and it'll be useless to try to articulate my thoughts on the argument but here are some thought experminents you can do.

I hope the reasoning behind it will make me see other POVs on the argument.

1-Let's suppose you have just bought a brand new PC. You decide to change, one at a time, all components of it. At wich time it will become a different PC from the one you had bought?
Now every part of the PC is not the same as the one it had when you bought it. Is it still the same PC? What if you build a PC with the old parts, is this the same PC as the original one?

2-You loose a limb, and it's replaced with an artificial one. Same for the other 3.
Then your liver, your heart, your stomach and so on... all replaced with machines.
In the end it's the turn of your brain (imagine mecal science could do it), and part by part, region by region, all your neurons are replaced by machines that work in the same exact way. At the end of the operation you have all your memories, your behaviour is not altered, basically nothing changed. At wich point did you stop being "you", if at all?

3-A technology similar to teletransportation has been invented.
You enter in a machine and it disgregates your body in an instant at the sub-atomic level, then on the other part of the world a similar machine reassembles with different particules a being wich is identical to you (same emotions, memory etc.) that will now enjoy his/her holiday on the other part of the world without having had to travel there on a long and boring plane flight.
Is this person you? Did you die after entering in the machine (keep in mind that at the moment you don't have in your body a single atom you had when you were born). Would you enter in it, and why/why not?


In the end... what makes you you? What makes an X object that X object?
Does it make sense to think at ourselves as something wich is something more than just a part of the universe with wich we constantly exchange energy and matter?

Also are you a materialist or do you maybe believe in the existence of methapisical entities at least partly disconnected from the phisical world like souls or some form of consciousness that's not a byproduct of the brain and its interactions with the world? What will happen to those things in the second and third case in your opinion?

I'm sorry for spelling mistakes and if something isn't too clear, but again I'm pretty high so...

Feel free to share your thoughts

 

[sólstafir]

My head feels like exploding, like I can't think, but I can see through haze of my mind that this is a really interesting thread. I think it's quite important to think deeper what makes you you before you kill yourself. I wish I could expand and explain my thoughts, unable to do that currently.(:

 

[ArtsyDrawer]

I've read about it. It's called after some dude's ship. "If you take potassium's ship and replace every plank and nail of it over time, is it still potassium's ship?"
I forgot the dude's name, but it's Roman. Potassium sounds like a semi decent name for an old Roman warrior dude.

The way I see it is that an object is very much related to its sentimental value. You have a cat, You name it "snuggles". If you clone it, even if that clone is an absolute atomic copy, you're not going to name that clone "snuggles". Probably. But that's for 100% copy all at once.

Now, replacement over time, that's a bit more tricky. My own pc is roughly seven years old. I haven't replaced a single component because it's a pain in the ass. It could probably use some upgrades. However, if I do replace its parts over time, it's stilly MY pc. I'm the sole user and buyer of it. In a bit weirder way my skin and hair are still MY skin and hair, even though my skin replaces itself fully every seven years or so. I'm still the sole user of my skin. The same thing would be for newly replaced organs. Assuming I'm given time to properly accept the new organs, assimilate them into my body, they become my organs.

The teleportation thing is a bit weirder. That one I'm having trouble deciding on. On the one hand, both entry and exit images are the same. Both entry and exit images are disassembled and assembled at the exact same time period relative to the person being teleported. The person going in presumably doesn't notice they die as the person coming out doesn't notice they're "born" from the teleporter. For all intents and purposes, nobody notices anybody dies in the process, since all but one variable remain the same.
I'd say the teleporter one is a bit more tricky. The way I see it, from the world's point of view, it's a perfect method of transportation. Compo goes in, Compo comes out. From my point of view, I died and didn't even notice.

I'd say the teleporter is the one where there's notable change in things. Since I'm completely disassembled what comes out is an absolute copy, but not the same Compo that went in.

 

[Kyrok]

Unity, identity, part vs whole -- they're mostly conventional constructs.
Item P is composed of parts p1, p2, p3....pn.
The unity of p1-pn as P is conventional. Sameness is violated at the first replacement.
With duplication (e.g. transporter) two tokens of the same type.

 

[Armadillo]

I've read about it. It's called after some dude's ship. "If you take potassium's ship and replace every plank and nail of it over time, is it still potassium's ship?"
I forgot the dude's name, but it's Roman. Potassium sounds like a semi decent name for an old Roman warrior dude.

The way I see it is that an object is very much related to its sentimental value. You have a cat, You name it "snuggles". If you clone it, even if that clone is an absolute atomic copy, you're not going to name that clone "snuggles". Probably. But that's for 100% copy all at once.

Now, replacement over time, that's a bit more tricky. My own pc is roughly seven years old. I haven't replaced a single component because it's a pain in the ass. It could probably use some upgrades. However, if I do replace its parts over time, it's stilly MY pc. I'm the sole user and buyer of it. In a bit weirder way my skin and hair are still MY skin and hair, even though my skin replaces itself fully every seven years or so. I'm still the sole user of my skin. The same thing would be for newly replaced organs. Assuming I'm given time to properly accept the new organs, assimilate them into my body, they become my organs.

The teleportation thing is a bit weirder. That one I'm having trouble deciding on. On the one hand, both entry and exit images are the same. Both entry and exit images are disassembled and assembled at the exact same time period relative to the person being teleported. The person going in presumably doesn't notice they die as the person coming out doesn't notice they're "born" from the teleporter. For all intents and purposes, nobody notices anybody dies in the process, since all but one variable remain the same.
I'd say the teleporter one is a bit more tricky. The way I see it, from the world's point of view, it's a perfect method of transportation. Compo goes in, Compo comes out. From my point of view, I died and didn't even notice.

I'd say the teleporter is the one where there's notable change in things. Since I'm completely disassembled what comes out is an absolute copy, but not the same Compo that went in.

The name of the ship dude is Theseus and he's Greek (he killed the Minotaurus).
Theseus' ship paradox is basically the same as my PC one.
AFAIK no one ever thought about similar problems to number 2 and 3.
It'd be pretty cool if I had actually "invented" them ahahaha...