Why is it that even though every cell has been replaced in our body (some many times)

[triron]

we still experience continuity of self?

[Beartracks]

1. Whoa.

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[shraby]

2. Possibly because they aren't all replaced in one fell swoop, but in drib-drabs.

Gives them a chance to become a part of the same unit.

[mr_lebowski]

3. Reckon SOMEone's been imbibing some uber-kind David Hume lately ;)

Also, I'm not sure that it's truly EVERY cell ... I think there's some nerve and brain cells that are the same ones we've literally had since the womb ...

[unblock]

4. Most neurons arent replaced. They last a lifetime.

And you can experience continuity of self if entire limbs and organs go away or are transplanted, so cells being replaced elsewhere in the body hardly should matter to continuity of self

[Binkie The Clown]

5. Upgraded hardware, same software. nt

[TheMastersNemesis]

6. Now If You Replaced The Brain. Would It Be You?

[lapfog_1]

7. number of reasons

first, as one responder noted, not every cell replicates at exactly the same time...

Analogy... if you understand how computer storage devices work... there is a method which uses redundancy to ensure that information survives the loss (and replacement) of a component device. Example, consider 5 disk drives working in parallel (like brain cells)... we store 4 bits of information (bits, bytes, blocks, whatever) onto 4 drives and on the 5th we store the sum of the XOR function of the other 4 drives... ( 0 XOR 0 yields a 0, 1 XOR 1 yields a 0, 0 XOR 1 yields 1 ). Now, should one of the 4 drives fails, we swap it for a new drive (cell replicates) and rebuild the missing information by simply doing the XOR on the remaining 4 drives and writing the sum on the new drive. In the cell world that would be making the neurons connect with the cells not replicated.

How do we know the analogy holds?.. remove a piece of your brain... if it is big enough on in the right area... your personality might/will change... certain memories will be forgotten. That would be like removing more than 1 disk drive from the 5 drives. It survives the loss of 1 drive, but not 2 or more.

Second, how do you know it DOESN'T change your sense of self as cells replicate (as you age)? Time definitely changes your memories as it makes new memories... but it also might change your memory all on its own.

[JayhawkSD]

8. If you lose your mind, you don't miss it.

Because you don't have anything to miss it with.

TheMastersNemesis raises a good point. How do you know that you actually do experience continuity of self? How you you know that who you remember yourself as being in the past is really who you were in the past?

Yes, I have photos, but those pictures are not of me, they are merely of the shell that contains me. How can I know who I was yesterday?

[Canoe52]

9. Ive gotta go smoke another bowl and think about all this.

[PJMcK]

10. Part one is a good idea

Don’t waste your time with part two!

[Canoe52]

11. Thats exactly the conclusion I came to!