The Ghost Protocol – Digital Identity for Immortals

http://000fff.org/the-ghost-protocol-digital-identity-for-immortals/

by ThomPete • 16 years ago

21 12 16 years ago

zarco74• 16 years ago

good stuff :)

His initial statement, "It takes seven years for each and every atom in your body to be replaced by another." sounds like an urban myth, and he provides zero documentation for it.

jjs4• 16 years ago

Supposedly the ancient Romans believed that one's body and soul renewed itself every seven years, which is probably the origin of this myth.

Regrettably, I can't find a good citation on that, although it's widely cited as the origin for the superstition that breaking a mirror causes seven years of bad luck.

TheAmazingIdiot• 16 years ago

As a complete aside, I can explain the 7 years of bad luck.

Back in the 1500's and up, when mirrors were smoothed silver on glass, they were only for royalty. And as per royalty, there were servants. The "bad luck" was actually punishment of 7 years of indentured servitude to pay for a broken mirror.

Oh what the things you learn by being in the SCA.

ThomPete2• 16 years ago

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1189358... http://stevegrand.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/where-do-those-da...

I don't know any specific place to point to, but I have heard this from scientists that I know.

None the less the point I was trying to make was more that the body is in flux not simply a static thing.

stcredzero• 16 years ago

It is an urban myth. A lot of your body's cells are around for much longer than 7 years, and they do not recycle all of their constituent atoms.

jjs4• 16 years ago

Suppose that, in an instant, your body and mind ceased to exist. Just completely vanished.

And suppose further, that nobody witnessed this, and that one instant later, by some very unlikely process, some matter or energy spontaneously organized itself into an exact duplicate of you, down to every last quantum wobble, in exactly the same place that you were standing.

Would either this new you or the old you notice? Would "you" still be "you"?

And would it matter?

pavel_lishin• 16 years ago

What if instead of miraculously vanishing, you were instead vaporized by your neighbor, using a ray that recorded the position or every atom? It's murder, right?

What if he recombines you, just like in your example an instant later. Is it murder?

A minute later. Murder?

An hour, day, week, month, year. Murder?

What if he just promises to everyone to put you back together. Later. In the future. Murder?

jjs4• 16 years ago

What if his name is Scotty, and rather than zapping you, he merely stored you in his transporter buffer and delayed beaming you to your destination for a moment?

What if he didn't delay at all? Did he kill you just by letting your atoms get ripped apart and reassembled elsewhere?

Or is this whole continuity-of-self thing a sham?

The Ghost Protocol – Digital Identity for Immortals

Related Stories