Blazer
07-30-2004, 06:30 PM
I can’t find anything as good on the ‘net so will quote from a book (the papery things that were used for communication before the monitor and keyboard took over :D ):
…A number of people have been able to lead relatively normal lives despite suffering catastrophic injuries that have left them with only one functioning brain hemisphere. In a futuristic turn on these cases, the English philosopher David Wiggins (1933-) asked what would happen to his self if his brain was divided into two different bodies…
Imagine you fell victim to a disease that destroyed your body and one of your brain’s hemispheres. Since we are in the future, the technology exists to save the remaining hemisphere and transplant it into a new body. If you were to undergo the operation, then, given the record of past successes in this field, you might reasonably expect to wake up in the recovery room once it was all over. You may find yourself in an unfamiliar body, but it will nevertheless be you since the new body possesses your old brain. Your friends may find the change somewhat strange to begin with, but they will eventually get used to your new form.
Now imagine a further twist: your surgeons tell you that they will in fact be able to save both hemispheres of your brain, only it will be necessary to separate them and implant them into different donor bodies. Before the anaesthetic begins to work, you may have time to wonder which of the two bodies you will wake up in. One clearly cannot wake up in both bodies since that would involve being two people at once. It would also be strange if you did not wake up in either body. - Nicholas Fearn, Zeno and the Tortoise, Atlantic Books London, 2001, pp53-54
Just wanted to open this up for debate. What do you think would happen in the above situation? Which of the two patients would be you?
As an aside, if you believe we have a soul, where would your soul go?
…A number of people have been able to lead relatively normal lives despite suffering catastrophic injuries that have left them with only one functioning brain hemisphere. In a futuristic turn on these cases, the English philosopher David Wiggins (1933-) asked what would happen to his self if his brain was divided into two different bodies…
Imagine you fell victim to a disease that destroyed your body and one of your brain’s hemispheres. Since we are in the future, the technology exists to save the remaining hemisphere and transplant it into a new body. If you were to undergo the operation, then, given the record of past successes in this field, you might reasonably expect to wake up in the recovery room once it was all over. You may find yourself in an unfamiliar body, but it will nevertheless be you since the new body possesses your old brain. Your friends may find the change somewhat strange to begin with, but they will eventually get used to your new form.
Now imagine a further twist: your surgeons tell you that they will in fact be able to save both hemispheres of your brain, only it will be necessary to separate them and implant them into different donor bodies. Before the anaesthetic begins to work, you may have time to wonder which of the two bodies you will wake up in. One clearly cannot wake up in both bodies since that would involve being two people at once. It would also be strange if you did not wake up in either body. - Nicholas Fearn, Zeno and the Tortoise, Atlantic Books London, 2001, pp53-54
Just wanted to open this up for debate. What do you think would happen in the above situation? Which of the two patients would be you?
As an aside, if you believe we have a soul, where would your soul go?