If you Teleported From One Place To Another, Would you Still be the Same Person?

[Deleted]

The soul is a construct, a set of arbitrarily defined characteristics that define an individuals "essence". It also has no relevance.

If you make an identical copy of an individual that you claim has a "soul" then the copy will also have a "soul".

If you then destroy the first individual you will also destroy this individual's "soul".

[Reyzzz]

A difference that makes no difference is no difference. At the moment of creation, it would be you. From that moment onwards, a different person.

[goki]

The answer relies on:

1) Is consciousness something defined by more than your physical being?
2) Would you accept a 99.x % copy of yourself as yourself?


If the answer to first is no and the answer to second is yes then from a QM perspective you would still be the same person. 1) is something no one has the first clue about, don't let anyone in this thread tell you otherwise. 2) concerns the non-linearity of any quantum copier, the wavefunction(s) that define us cannot be reconstructed (copied) due to QM requiring all operators (the copy machine) to be linear (this is the established theory). You may want to google "Quantum Xenox Machine" for the formal (simple math, you would understand) proof.

[bekilrwale]

Very interesting, unfortunately I have no clue and just the thought makes my head hurt.

[Deleted]

no. you would turn into a giant fly.

[Destruktion]

Whether or not teleportation would be able to transfer your mind determines whether or not you would still be the same person. If you are just transporting the elementary particles without regard for the emergent properties of the brain, then all you are doing is destroying a body in one location and recreating an exact replica in another. The replica will not have the same mind as the original.

[Metallikiddd]

The soul is a construct, a set of arbitrarily defined characteristics that define an individuals "essence". It also has no relevance.

If you make an identical copy of an individual that you claim has a "soul" then the copy will also have a "soul".

If you then destroy the first individual you will also destroy this individual's "soul".

Your soul is your life force. It is pure energy. Just like the body is matter. Both get recycled back into the cosmos.

[Deleted]

Your soul is your life force. It is pure energy. Just like the body is matter. Both get recycled back into the cosmos.

No, that's hogwash.

The "soul" is a construct, it is not something real, the very definition of what is a soul and who/what has a soul varies between religions and philosophies.

I suppose you could view the idea of a "soul" as another term for the mind or a mind with cognition, whatever definition happens to be closer to your personal religious definition of "soul". But, at the end of the day the soul is not a real thing.

"If ever there were an entity invented for human wish-fulfillment, the soul is that entity. As Thomas Hobbes pointed out, the concept of a non-substantial substance is a contradiction."

[semaphore]

Your soul is your life force. It is pure energy. Just like the body is matter. Both get recycled back into the cosmos.

Supposed "pure energy" that has never been measured or otherwise left any scientifically verfiable mark upon the real world is best considered fictional.

[Deleted]

If it's the destroy the original, make a copy somewhere thing then no, you would be dead and there would be and evil clone running around:P

Because no technology can perfectly replicate a person. You can get every molecule right but it still wouldn't be you, you can't get the electrical charges in the brain and the quantum states of it's atoms right though.

[Venant]

If I get my arm chopped off I don't lose 15% of 'myself' even though I have perhaps lost that percentage of my physical body. If I walk to the kitchen to get a snack while typing this, my consciousness isn't going to somehow fall out of my body just because I have moved. Similarly, when you eat food it is absorbed into your body and creates new material, theoretically changing you physical 'composition'; this doesn't mean that if I start eating lots of chili peppers I will no longer be Venant and I will now be Venant the Spicy. I think you would all be surprised to realize how much of your body has already died off and been replaced by new cells over the course of only a few years, and in your entire lifetime how many 'bodies' you go through (being replaced 1 cell at a time constantly).

Some people question whether souls exist, but the fact of the matter is that our science and understanding of the subject is still so crude that such a debate is like cavemen debating whether the Higgs Boson exists.

[Deleted]

If I get my arm chopped off I don't lose 15% of 'myself' even though I have perhaps lost that percentage of my physical body. If I walk to the kitchen to get a snack while typing this, my consciousness isn't going to somehow fall out of my body just because I have moved. Similarly, when you eat food it is absorbed into your body and creates new material, theoretically changing you physical 'composition'; this doesn't mean that if I start eating lots of chili peppers I will no longer be Venant and I will now be Venant the Spicy. I think you would all be surprised to realize how much of your body has already died off and been replaced by new cells over the course of only a few years, and in your entire lifetime how many 'bodies' you go through (being replaced 1 cell at a time constantly).

Some people question whether souls exist, but the fact of the matter is that our science and understanding of the subject is still so crude that such a debate is like cavemen debating whether the Higgs Boson exists.

Please see the quote I posted about the common definition of a soul being inherently contradictory.

Yes, slowly cells in your body are replaced but that's not the same as replacing your entire body (and brain) with a copy at once.

It's really not that hard to grasp if you look beyond superstition and "magic".

[Deleted]

If you were broken down and then rebuilt, with every single molecule and memory still intact the way it was before the teleportation you would not be the same person. To everyone else you would seem to be the same, you would yourself think that you were the same but your consciousness would not be the same. This is nothing that we as human can understand, but we would indeed die and then a clone would reappear somewhere else.

When it comes to the question about the 2 clones created from the same person they would in the beginning start off as the same person. But we are shaped by our experiences. So in just a few seconds they would both have different experiences depending on what spot in the same room they were standing in and soon they would be able to have a conversation without saying the same things to each other. But if you created 2 exactly identical mazes and put them in one of them each, in the exact same spot as the other they would walk through the maze in the exact same time, taking the exact same paths and taking breaks on the exact same spots.

This is nothing i have studied on but this is at least what i believe would happen.

[Ultimate Gohan]

It depends upon the place where i get teleported, u should move according to society and as well satisfy yourself what you are doing . God Bless

[Venant]

Please see the quote I posted about the common definition of a soul being inherently contradictory.

Yes, slowly cells in your body are replaced but that's not the same as replacing your entire body (and brain) with a copy at once.

It's really not that hard to grasp if you look beyond superstition and "magic".

You quoted Thomas Hobbes, I'm sure that Thomas Hobbes also didn't know that Oxygen molecules existed, does that mean he was somehow able to live without breathing?

You view the world through the prism that has been brainwashed into your mind. How do you know that anything you know is the truth, since everything you know is interpreted through this prism. If you had been born in a place or time where you were indoctrinated into a particular religion, then you would understand all things through the prism of that particular religion. If you were born in a place where you were indoctrinated to believe in the absolutes of known science, then you would understand everything through the prism of your science.

Science is just as problematic as religion, and if you had a true understanding of science then you wouldn't dismiss concepts such as the soul. Not too long ago there were 'scientists' who 'knew' that the world was flat and the center of the universe.

[Deleted]

This, in every way conceivable the copy is identical, but is the human soul or "you" or whatever bound to those original particles in some way or otherwise destroyed when broken down?

To use a geeky example, the anime One Piece touches on the subject of rebuilding a ship and how if the core piece of wood from which the ship is built around was different (regardless of being the same type of wood, the exact same structure etc) the new ship would look identical but it wouldn't feel the same, essentially it would have a different soul.

I think to put it simple, your electrical functions on the original you would stop, and would have to be restarted on your clone, think of it like when you take the battery out of the BIOS on your computer, while you keep it on that information is you, the electric impulses are keeping that information stored, it is you, when you shut it down, it stops, whatever makes you ( the electric impulses continuously pulsing through your brain ) is no longer there.

[StayTuned]

If I get my arm chopped off I don't lose 15% of 'myself' even though I have perhaps lost that percentage of my physical body. If I walk to the kitchen to get a snack while typing this, my consciousness isn't going to somehow fall out of my body just because I have moved. Similarly, when you eat food it is absorbed into your body and creates new material, theoretically changing you physical 'composition'; this doesn't mean that if I start eating lots of chili peppers I will no longer be Venant and I will now be Venant the Spicy. I think you would all be surprised to realize how much of your body has already died off and been replaced by new cells over the course of only a few years, and in your entire lifetime how many 'bodies' you go through (being replaced 1 cell at a time constantly).

Some people question whether souls exist, but the fact of the matter is that our science and understanding of the subject is still so crude that such a debate is like cavemen debating whether the Higgs Boson exists.

What are you even talking about? Your "soul" or consciousness is not stored in your arm. Try losing 15% of your brain and come back to me, saying you did not change at all

[ptwonline]

The arrangement and state of the matter in your "copy" would be identical, even if the actual matter itself was different. For all practical purposes, it's still "you", and I see no reason why you would need to concern yourself. You would still think the same, function the same, have the same memories, be perceived the same way.

[McFrotton]

consider this. When you are born with an identical twin, you have the exact same DNA. suppose you had the exact same memories. Suppose YOU are destroyed, but your twin is still alive. there still may be a 'you' to everyone else, but YOU are dead.

That's is not true at all, seriously how can people still think identical twins are the same on genetic (even atomic) level....they arent, they look the same physically and thats about it.

[Deleted]

If you could get teleported you will not be the same person. You would be an exact copy of you but on an atomic level you are not the same person. Although you are made up of the same molecules 0% of your body will contain the same atoms as the origonal copy, thus are not the same person.

Now blow your minds. Using that idea you are not the same person as you were when you were born.

Your cells die and are replaced by other cells made up of different atoms. So techincally you aren't the same person. You are a ??% copy of the previous copy, since you will contain a large portion of atoms from before, but then a small number of your atoms are replaced as such you are no longer you. However there are the small portions of your body that may retain a few atoms from the original you.(the means in which radiocarbon dating of remains can be done over hundreds of years, therefore within a few decades you retain some atoms.Therefore you will always remain a small percentage the same person as you were before, so you could claim you are the same you.

If you want to get pedantic there is a the most unrealistic chance that if you were teleported that an atom from the original you from when you were born ends up bein in the same spot in you as it was when you were first born meaning that by the most minimal % of you therefore possibly could claim you are the same person (since you are made up from one of the same molecules you originally contained