Re: Parfit's token and type

From: Russell Standish <r.standish.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2006 17:57:32 +1000

On Sun, Oct 08, 2006 at 12:35:44AM +1000, Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
> This is
> literally true, given that from moment to moment, even in the absence of teleportation
> etc., the atoms in your body turn over such that after a certain time none of the
> matter in your body is the "same", and before this time the fact that some of the
> matter in your body is the "same" is accidental and makes no difference to your
> conscious experience.
>

We _really_ need to dispell this myth. It turns out that A bomb tests
prior to the partial test ban treaty provides a unique clock that
allows one to measure when a particular cell was born. It turns out
that whilst this statement is true of various organs (eg the gut in
particular), neurons turn out to have an average age just two years
less than the age of the person (as measured in cadavers), ie most are
born during the rapid brain expansion that occurs during the first two
years of life.

This is crucial, because I would suspect that neurons have far more
relevance to one's person, than do gut cells.

I posted on this before - it was reported in a recent New Scientist. I
can dig out the reference if people are interested.

-- 
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Received on Sat Oct 07 2006 - 20:20:00 PDT