Woody.pasa@XEROX.ARPA (08/22/84)
Here's a problem which arises, then: Today I'm me. I'm made up
of around 160 pounds of matter, and if I step into a matter-
transport, the machine goes *wrrrrr* and poof!, it copies all of
the spin states and the wave forms of the atoms and molecules
making up the poor fat of this body, and duplicates it, zapping
this old poor body in the sending booth in the process. Is it
really *me* in the new location? (Or is it Memorex?)
Okay, so I'm not me. I'm just a copy of the old *me*.
I go to sleep tonight, and a few molecules in my brain get
shuffled out, and some new ones take their places. This happens
all the time; I'm slowly, amino acid by amino acid, being replaced
by new molecules.
In a few years, the majority of the molecules which used to be in
*me* before are now gone; replaced. The mass of the matter, instead
of being ripped up and destroyed, only to be reassembled, has now
over a period of many years been destroyed and flushed away.
Okay: is it really me now? I mean before I got put into a matter-
transmitter; now I've just sat around on my behind for a couple
of years. So, am I really me, or am I a cheap imitation, made up
of matter from Big-Macs and Milk-Shakes?
- From the smoking remains of
Bill Woody
"You are what you eat."