Let’s imagine a world where reproduction has gone fully digital.
We already know that a human genome can be sequenced, stored, and simulated. Given a phased genome (with parental haplotypes separated), it’s trivial to simulate meiosis computationally: apply a realistic recombination map, sample crossover points, recombine haplotypes — voilà, a digital gamete.
Now take two such gametes — perhaps both from you, perhaps from different individuals — and combine them. The result is a new diploid genome, a digital zygote.
You can do this a million times in a second. You can apply filters, polygenic scores, even “genetic aesthetics” heuristics. Biological evolution becomes Monte Carlo simulation on a cloud instance.
So here’s the philosophical question:
If that... (read more)
A Ship of Theseus concept where individual neurons are replaced one at a time with a nanotechnological functional equivalent.
Are you still you?
I’m not a neuroscientist, but as far as I know we already do brain operations where the patient is conscious. Couldn’t a gradual-replacement procedure leverage that fact? And if we left multi-year gaps between each swap, friends and family would effectively be running a long-term Turing Test . Wouldn’t that count as evidence for preserved identity?
Happy to find an article that is related to my situation .Could you update the link to your survey questions since it is broken now?
Regarding the case where both “digital gametes” originate from the same one, I think it can reasonably be viewed as a digital analog of parthenogenesis that already exists across biology, from lizards and sharks to certain birds.