(May 19, 2011 at 1:45 am)Girlysprite Wrote:This argument can be ramped up even more. Lets take a strictly scientific view: All human beings are made from atoms and these atoms are rather commomplace. In otherwords, there are no special carbon atoms in your body. If they were all replaced with some other carbon atoms it would have no effect on either the functioning of your body or your personality.(May 19, 2011 at 12:03 am)Whirling Moat Wrote: So let us say that it was now possible to transfer all of a recently deceased individual's memories into an electronic device, and upload these memories into a cloned human form which was raised into adulthood entirely unconscious, would you propose that once the clone was awakened with the new memories it would be the dead person raised back to life? The same person? Not a facsimile...
Whirling Moat
I think that you would actually find a lot of different answers from different persons on that. Let's ramp it up a bit: Familiar with the alias problem? Let's say you clone a person, and just before it wakes up you also copy the memories from the 'original'. Clone wakes up. Original is still alive.
Are they both the same person?
Now assume the special computer copies your body atom for atom and reconstructs a truly atomic clone of your body. Since every atom is the same, then the brain of the clone would be identical to your brain with every memory and sensation intact. Scientifically speaking this must be the same person as the original. But since, scientifically speaking, one person cannot be in two bodies at the same time, we are at a point of contradiction. One obvious explanation is that there exists another substance which, unlike the commonplace atoms, such as carbon, is in fact unique and cannot be copied. This would resolve the contradiction. Is this the basis of the belief in a human soul?
