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A comment on Billions’ worth of high-tech research seeking to make death optional. Parent comment

Re:Billions’ worth of high-tech research seeking to make dea... by TeMPOraL on Tuesday March 28, 2017 @09:00AM (#13976158)
That's trivially invalidated by observing that there are people without various limbs and/or other body parts that are nevertheless happily alive and considered to exist as beings.

The physical body - and the physical environment we live in - are just variables that can be gradually altered. Even if the brain is optimized towards a particular environment, it doesn't mean it won't handle a different one.

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Re:Billions’ worth of high-tech research seeking to make dea... by pugio on Tuesday March 28, 2017 @11:07AM (#13977182)
It is not trivial, nor invalidated.

They do exists as beings, yes, but different beings than the ones who possessed (or would have possessed) those limbs.

The question is not one of necessary conditions for "being-hood", it is one of identity via continuity.

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Re:Billions’ worth of high-tech research seeking to make dea... by TeMPOraL on Tuesday March 28, 2017 @11:44AM (#13977552)
Identity via continuity sounds like the Ship of Theseus problem[0], and it doesn't seem like any kind of a roadblock for anything.

As for being a different being, I personally wouldn't mind. I'm not the same being I was yesterday, or last year, anyway. For instance, over the past few years, I have many parts of my teeth removed and replaced with artificial components. I do not feel worse because of that.

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

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