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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?

"In your current life, every cell in your body has died and been replaced many times. There is nothing in your current body that you were born with. You have no original equipment, just replacement parts, so for all practical purposes, you are already a replica of a prior version of you."
~ God's Debris by Scott Adams, page 103 ~
Just because something is written in a book, it doesn't mean it's true. I must sheepishly admit that I'm not sure if the above state is accurate or not. I had a grand tendency to daydream in biology class and so my knowledge in this subject area isn't up to par with my knowledge in other areas.

I know that the cells in our blood have a life cycle and it's a constant dance of old blood cells being retired to be replaced with new ones. I know this is true as well for our bone marrow. But do the cells in our brains, bones and organs do the same dance?

If the above statement turns out to be true, then it gives a person a lot to think about. What we call me is not a solid entity but a fluid process. It means that, as the character Avatar points out, we are constantly a replica of past selves. It could even mean that the me I see in the mirror is even more of an illusion than I once thought.

So what say you? Does every human cell die throughout a person's lifetime?

2 comments:

  1. Does any thought you have stay the same throughout your life?
    Do any of your perceptions remain solid and unchanging?
    Is there anything, anywhere, that is unchanging, over time?
    Why would your body not be subject to change, replacement, and to entropy?
    I didn't have all these lines and wrinkles before.
    My eyes were once a whole lot better, too.
    What is "me" anyway, that I imagine I own a full share in it?
    The cosmos is my body, and it, too, changes.

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  2. At the very least the energy, the wobble, the positions of the bits are not constant. Like a river changes shape and content but has the same name.

    Also said by some, the whirl pool has no fixed self.

    This is something I have come across in the books of Fritjof Capra and others.

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