I think you're thinking of this in legal terms. Bless you, scientific types. I wonder if you've reached the limits of your understanding. But we will press on.
So, okay, let's go back to the start. Instead of a ship, you've got a person. So now you take that person apart, down to the subatomic level, and you use whatever sort of technology necessary to induce spooky action at a distance, or something like it, so that the person's subatomic particles are flipped, switched, changed, or otherwise moved from one place to another. Thereafter, those particles are reassembled to form that person again. But is it that person? On what does a person's "real" existence depend? Does it matter that this person is not made of the same particles as before? Will that affect memory and mind? Is this person truly the same person as before? Yes, the particles are identical, but does that affect the way in which one thinks of that person and does that affect the way in which that person thinks of the world (or universe, for let it stand for both)?
Remember, Theseus's ship is almost in two places at once without being anywhere at all. Theseus has his repaired and rebuilt ship which he thinks of as his and the thief has the reassembled old parts of Theseus's ship in a new place. Which one is, for lack of a better word, the "real" ship?
What, Memorex? It's magnetic recording tape. Here, hang on. They guy I knew always got the catch phrase wrong, so go figure, but I found something on CityTube that might help:
no subject
So, okay, let's go back to the start. Instead of a ship, you've got a person. So now you take that person apart, down to the subatomic level, and you use whatever sort of technology necessary to induce spooky action at a distance, or something like it, so that the person's subatomic particles are flipped, switched, changed, or otherwise moved from one place to another. Thereafter, those particles are reassembled to form that person again. But is it that person? On what does a person's "real" existence depend? Does it matter that this person is not made of the same particles as before? Will that affect memory and mind? Is this person truly the same person as before? Yes, the particles are identical, but does that affect the way in which one thinks of that person and does that affect the way in which that person thinks of the world (or universe, for let it stand for both)?
Remember, Theseus's ship is almost in two places at once without being anywhere at all. Theseus has his repaired and rebuilt ship which he thinks of as his and the thief has the reassembled old parts of Theseus's ship in a new place. Which one is, for lack of a better word, the "real" ship?
What, Memorex? It's magnetic recording tape. Here, hang on. They guy I knew always got the catch phrase wrong, so go figure, but I found something on CityTube that might help:
"Memorex Cassette Tapes" [01] - TV commercial (1981)