Cartesian mind/body problem

MyMaja and I got into a philosophical debate, following the viewing of the movie yesterday. It started with Theseus' ship – the paradox which questions if all the parts of a ship are gradually replaced, is it still the same ship and if yes, then what if someone collected all the discarded pieces and built them back into the ship? Which one then is the true Theseus’s ship?

What happens when a heart is transplanted? You are no longer the same person, surely, and it can freak some people out (though not so much so with other body parts such as lung or kidney, as we do not have such a dramatic communication with kidneys as we do with hearts.) but how much of you must be replaced before ‘you’ comes into question? And what the answers then should be?

A long time ago I had such a weird moment of discomfort when I was told I must change all of my documents upon my first marriage, as a name has been added to my own and the woman at the counter at the magistrate said: this person no longer exists.

Fuck you, lady.

Then there is the matter of the brain. If you ask the brain, it is the only thing that makes you you – every other part you can lose or replace, but within the brain lies your true spirit … Well. No. There is more to the personality than the brain. For starters, there are hormones. Yes, it doesn't WORK without the brain, but whenever I see my husband naked, my cunt starts to water like a hungry dog. It does that completely on its own. I could probably MAKE it, using only thought, or PREVENT it from, using thoughts to distract myself, but the cunt has a life completely of its own. I can switch my brain off when we're banging, and the cunt has a jolly good time being simply a cunt. The brain can imagine A LOT. But that’s a consolation price.

What happens when someone transplants an arm or a hand? Does that hand gradually communicate with the blood enough to get freckles, to get the skin tone and the texture and the hair similar to the rest of me?

The fact is the General is a much better person than me – if his life depended on it, I would give him my heart in a … heartbeat. Then he’d be him with my heart in it. Can you picture it? I can picture all the things that could go wrong, but above that, I can see someone with his sense and my passion. :D And cannot find a better reason to die.

That said, should the day arrive anyone can get transplants and upgrades and additions, I will be the crazy old lady promoting purity of the body, waiting for the day when I have to save everyone who’s been hacked. I don’t even like new cars. My car is half my age and I’m half an old lady already.