Wanna Know What I Find Strange?
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Skin cells live about two or three weeks. Colon cells have it rough: They die off after about four days. Sperm cells have a life span of only about three days, while brain cells typically last an entire lifetime (neurons in the cerebral cortex, for example, are not replaced when they die). As long as your mind stays the same, you are still you. Only experiences can change the core of who someone is. 1
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I believe I know your thoughts on religion but let me ask this just to open a dialogue and see what you think, if we are a different creature and yet still the same, perhaps it is the soul that keeps us as still being us. Thoughts? It is possible, yes. Do I personally believe it? No. I choose rather to believe that change is the actual state of being. That's an interesting point, as well as Mint's further wonder that the soul keeps the identity together. A few variations on this to ponder... 1) If you receive a transplanted organ, technically none of those cells were yours either. At what point are they technically part of you? And if over time those cells also replace themselves are the replacement cells of the transplant then yours - or not? 2) If people suffer a catastrophic biological event (like a stroke) and emerge from it behaviorally completely different than they were before then what does that mean for Mint's soul keeping it all together observation? 3) Does the cell replacement process start as early as in the womb? Because one might argue the 9 month old fetus is technically a different entity than the 9 week old embryo, and if so does that have implications in the abortion debate? Those are some fascinating questions. 1) It is my, albeit limited understanding, that a person who has an organ transplant typically has to have medicine that allows the body to retain the organ without rejecting it and such medicine is a life long treatment. I remember this in the case of a young boy who at the age of 7? had new hands transplanted to his body. He was the ideal candidate for it because when he was very young his mother had to give him one of her livers and he was still taking the drugs to keep that going for him. So while those cells aren't yours, the necessity for outside chemicals forcing the body to co-exist with different cells would call into question them being you instead of a part of you. If that makes sense. 2) I would ask the question simply for curiosity, do you believe the soul affects a person's behavior? Or vice versa? I'm genuinely curious as to your thoughts on that. I kind of think of the soul, and this may be a terrible analogy, as a basic cake mix, like vanilla. Your experiences, your behaviors are all flavors that are added to it in different layers. So your soul is the base, then how you experience things is a different layer, then your attitude/behavior is a layer after that but they can't exist without tumbling without that base. So while I think one layer may change flavor over time the base is still there. Again....this may be a bad analogy. 3) That is a very good question. I'm not all too sure myself but would be interested in what others would say to that. Thanks for discussing. Just to share one example, when I was in college I spent a couple summers working as a nurse aid in a psych ward. We had one patient who was seriously mentally ill and combative but I was told his illness was actually from a stroke. Before the stroke he was a very nice and well respected member of the community, a great family man, pretty much all things you'd want him to be. But the stroke killed some areas of his brain and though he lived he came out of it a totally different person whom few people liked or wanted to be around because he had become so nasty. Theoretically he had the same soul before and after. If his soul was the basic cake batter of who he was then how did he go from angel food cake to mud pie? 1
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If you receive a transplanted organ, technically none of those cells were yours either. At what point are they technically part of you? And if over time those cells also replace themselves are the replacement cells of the transplant then yours - or not? Indeed, and as technology advances this is only going to become a more pertinent question. When we eventually reach the stage where we can either transplant or prosthetically replace anything and everything, at which point do you stop being you? If people suffer a catastrophic biological event (like a stroke) and emerge from it behaviorally completely different than they were before then what does that mean for Mint's soul keeping it all together observation? I don't prescribe to Mint's belief, but in her defence I don't think it would make an awful difference, given that we are talking external characteristics versus internal (presumably non-physical) characteristics. Does the cell replacement process start as early as in the womb? Because one might argue the 9 month old fetus is technically a different entity than the 9 week old embryo, and if so does that have implications in the abortion debate? Good question. I don't actually know the answer but I am going to presume that cell regeneration does begin in the womb. I doubt it would have a big impact on the abortion debate, but predominantly because that debate isn't really about science anyway. That one is an ideological clusterfuck. This idea of the body replacing itself every seven years isn't entirely true. Many of our cells are short lived, however this is not true for all cells (Source 1), in particular the majority of our neurons exist from birth (Source 1,2). Given that the seat of our personal consciousness is the brain, it makes sense that our personal consciousness remains (at least mostly) the same. Sources: (1) https://www.thenakedscientists.com/ (2) https://www.livescience.com/ 1
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This idea of the body replacing itself every seven years isn't entirely true. Many of our cells are short lived, however this is not true for all cells (Source 1), in particular the majority of our neurons exist from birth (Source 1,2). Given that the seat of our personal consciousness is the brain, it makes sense that our personal consciousness remains (at least mostly) the same. Damn fine post. Disproves my assertion that we are completely different creatures after all. However, your source does mention that recent breakthroughs of the last 10-15 years have shown that certain brain cells are replaced. Furthermore:- From birth through the final stages of life, brain cells and the connections between them are changing in response to the environment. With increasingly sophisticated technology, researchers are exploring changes in brain cell structure and function throughout life more closely than ever before. http://www.brainfacts.org/ |
