you?

i’ll do you one better; read Michael Crichton’s Timeline. it was made into a mediocre movie with Paul Walker and Gerard Butler, but the book is well worth the read.

I suppose it comes down to individual interpretation. The “you” that you are is not the “you” that you were a second ago let alone an hour ago. Your states have changed- your mind is different than it was, your body. We don’t even need to lose an arm. An old question about a ship- as it sails and ages parts gets replaced, masts and sails and planks of wood. Over a long enough time, perhaps not a single original piece remains, or perhaps just a single bolt. Is it the same ship? With exception to your brain, heart, and eyes- basically every single cell in your body is replaced every seven years.

If you don’t see a friend or family member for 7 years, you hugged them goodbye, you hug them hello when you next meet- neither of you has ever hugged the physical body you are now hugging. A body that hasn’t had sex again in 7 years… is it a virgin? That could make several religious issues much more moot- but regardless of our personal thoughts on the matter, neither science nor philosophy has, in all of recorded history, been able to give a definitive definition of what “self” or “you” even are. The closest we get in science and arguably in philosophy to such a thing is a sort of shrug and a concession that since we can only base a conclusion on what we can perceive, the fact that we believe we exist and others seem to believe so as well is “good enough” to prove we exist- or that under those criteria it doesn’t matter since we seem to anyway.