Mind game - The Ship of Theseus

Jovanni Ugly Tribune wrote: »

If you replace all the components of a ship one by one over a period of time and use the removed components to assemble another ship, does the ship exist in two places?

Hmmm. You bastard. Good point though. I would say the symbol of the ship would exist in two places, the reality no. But then what if we kept more continuity and replaced 50% of one ship with 50% of the other? Would they be more the same ship in two places?

I think human sentiment plays a huge part too. I've seen guys who've rebuilt 1930's race cars(and old aircraft) from a few components and original chassis and engine plates and they're seen as the same car. By many anyway. But when push comes to shove the rebuilt ones are worth less in monetary terms than original examples. So the market sees a difference. Reality and authenticity costs more(as does faux reality and authenticity).

If we look at the human scale; yes all our cells are different at 30 than they were at 13, but we have the continuity of memory of consciousness each step of the way, so we're still the same ghost in the machine. Or are we and that memory of consciousness is an illusion.

If we get down to the subatomic even quantum level(Deepak Chopra, fcuk off), then if we made an exact quantum copy of ourselves it would be the same us, though IIRC to do so would require destroying the original. Would our memory of consciousness transfer in that case? I suspect it would. It would be like the above 13 to 30 example speeded up.

Or maybe that only works if parts are replaced over time, rather than the whole all at once? Like if you took your car and somebody replaced bits and bobs with the same kind and age of bits and bobs over ten years without your knowledge, you'd likely not notice, or if you did, you'd also likely ignore it, but if they did it overnight you would and it wouldn't be your car anymore?