Posted by Noctillucent on July 10, 19101 at 07:36:39:

In Reply to: There is no spoon. posted by John Tchoe on July 06, 19101 at 12:04:12:

So if your brain were made of a different set of atoms you would not subjectively exist, but the brain would belong to different conscious entity who only looks and acts like you.

Given that the atoms in your own brain have undergone substantial replacement in the past 10 years, this leads to some interesting questions. For example, what percentage of atoms must be replaced before this switch of persons occurs? All of the atoms, 51 percent of the atoms, or just one atom?

And how does this switch take place? Did the person who existed before you gradually loose consciousness as you took over and gradually gained consciousness? And how did the two persons, each unaware of the other, share responsibility for controlling the same body?

Or did the switch occur all at once. Maybe one morning your body woke up and with a brand new person, and the former person no longer existing.

Further, are we to presume that the specific atoms that make up your brain have some special property that creates you, and which no other set of atoms can produce? What physical property would that be?

And what are the odds of those specific atoms coming together in the same brain? Given the number of atoms in the physical universe, that makes your conscious existence unbelievably improbable, almost beyond calculation.

These are all intelligible questions. Your answers?

Follow Ups:

• One step forward, two steps back. John Tchoe 12:39:22 7/10/101 (1)
  • My reply at the top. Noctillucent 09:14:56 7/13/101 (0)

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