The Coin Flip: A Different Perspective

[Abion47]

There are a couple of ways that the Ship of Perseus analogy breaks down in comparison to the Simon copy process.

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First is that our existence is continuous. Our cells are constantly dying and getting replaced, but not all at once. I can say that I'm the same "me" as I was 5, 10, or 20 years ago because every time a cell in my body gets replaced, that cell is now incorporated into all the other cells that are "me". As a result, I am constantly redefining who I am in the same way that someone who gets a tattoo incorporates that tattoo into their definition of themselves.

The nature of the Ship of Theseus question becomes completely different when you incorporate the concept of continuity rather than thinking of the before and after times as being completely distinct moments. Think of it like the difference in the probability problems "What's the chance of flipping a coin ten times and getting heads each time?" and "If you've flipped a coin nine times and it landed heads each time, what's the chance of the tenth coin flip also landing heads?" Both questions involve a coin being flipped ten times, but they have completely different answers based on the scope that the question is framed around (~0.098% and 50%, respectively).

The Simon copies, on the other hand, do not have a continuous existence. They were created instantaneously into entirely new bodies. No piece of their physical forms was a part of their previous selves. The only things they have linking themselves with their previous iterations are their memories and their perceptions of continuity, both of which are illusions created by the propagation of abstract information.

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Second, and perhaps the more poignant point, is that the idea that we are an "entirely new person" every seven to ten years is a myth. Yes, the vast majority of our cells have finite lifespans ranging from a number of years to just a handful of days, but there are a couple exceptions. Bone cells have a lifespan of nearly three decades, and more relevant to the discussion, brain cells are typically with us until the day we die. So while much of your physical body becomes entirely replaced between your teenage years and your midlife crisis, the cells that make up "you" hardly change at all throughout your entire life.

Furthermore, when brain cells do die, they don't get replaced. This is why mental disorders are so much more prevalent in older people, and why brain damage often leads to permanent changes in someone's personality or mental faculties. (This point could actually prompt a discussion of whether Simon's bleed really did make him a different person.)

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Although to address your last question separately, it can easily be argued in a vast number of ways that our own continuities are illusions (Last Tuesdayism is a popular one, or the one where our existences are just a finite series of discrete moments strung together to feel continuous like the frames of a video). The difference between our situation and Simon's is that, while we can logically and philosophically argue that our continuities might be an illusion, Simon's continuity is most definitely and objectively an illusion with irrefutable proof to say so.