nightmare wrote:Brain death is a permanent condition, NL. If someone is revived, it wasn't brain death.
'some means' = 'Q's Pixie Dust.' Next.
Why is the original Star Wars films worth a fortune, when I have a perfectly good copy nowhere near the value? Because it's not the same. If the Mona Lisa is destroyed, her image will still live on in a vast number of legitimate copies varying from painted to electronic. But they don't have anywhere near the original value. There's only one, unique, you, and you cannot be replaced, by anything, anywhere, anytime. Why is this so hard to understand?
Original versions of art are considered more valuable than prints because they are irreplaceable. They are valuable because they are the version the artist created, or have collector's value, in the case of the film reel.
With the transporter technology, a person is not irreplaceable. There is no difference whatsoever between the first iteration of them and a post-transporter version. This leaves sentiment (as it already is with some forms of art) as the only reason for added value of an original. If a replicator was used to make three identical Mona Lisas, and they were jumbled up with the original, would the original become any less of a 'masterpiece?'
In much the same way, when a transporter creates an exact copy of a human's mind, (and invests it with their 'spirit'), does it not have their identity in full? Is the Picard that steps off a transporter pad any less Picard than the one that was beamed up?
I'll try to explain the value of continuity of existance some more.
This should be good.
On the average, every cell in your body is replaced every seven years, faster when you are a kid. The you who now exists is not the same person as you when you where, say, 5. In fact, the two of you have almost nothing in common besides identical DNA.
*Chuckles* Would you like me to explain what your foolish little mistake (actually, there's a few, but anyway) is there, or can you find it from re-reading?
And FYI, there is very little cell replacement in the brain after it reaches maturity. Cell replacement happens at radically different rates in different tissues. The lining of the small intestine, for example, being among the fastest, wheras, without
Nonetheless both are you. Not the same you, but still you, while your identical twin is not you. Simple physical facts,
Which I evidently know better than you do, but go on.
easy to understand. Part of the water in your body was probably once part of say, Caesar. Does that mean that Ceasar still lives in you? Of course not. By your previous definition of interrupted continuity regarding Trek medical stasis, I would die every time I go to sleep, which is patently absurd.
(ok that last bit is a bit tongue in cheek.. but only a little... I honestly think it's more an inability for you to understand, or my inability to communicate, rather than a difference of definitions).
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