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[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's more of a joke than a valid theory, but I've always appreciated the one-electron universe hypothesis because it gives you an idea of the kind of viewpoint you need to make discoveries about this sort of thing. None of it has to make any logical sense to you as a human at all. Quantum physics especially so. As I recall, there was a quote by some famous quantum physicist to the effect of that if anybody claims to actually understand quantum physics, they're either lying or delusional.

[SalmonGod]

Depend how you define the self. For example, let's take the case of Phineas Gage. Basically, he lost part of his brain, and after the accident had a complete change of personality. To me he was simply not the same man afterward.

And this is sort of why psychiatric medicine is existentially horrifying to me.

[Dwarf4Explosives]

The definition of a cyborg is a human who is partially mechanical. It's what we've been discussing for the last few pages. Then again, your a spammer. Unleash the Vikings!

A cookie to whoever gets the reference.

[GiglameshDespair]

Cyborg is a shortened word representing Cybernetic Organism - one that has both organic and mechanical parts. Therefore, humans can quite easily be cyborgs. It's quite arguable that wearing glasses or contact lenses are a form of cyborg-isation.

[Helgoland]

Depend how you define the self. For example, let's take the case of Phineas Gage. Basically, he lost part of his brain, and after the accident had a complete change of personality. To me he was simply not the same man afterward.

And this is sort of why psychiatric medicine is existentially horrifying to me.

And why it's existentially necessary for me. Two sides of the same coin, you know.

[Dwarf4Explosives]

I'm sorry about calling him a spammer, but considering the amount of spam messages I've seen for Coca Cola recently...well, it's understandable.

Anyway, I see two sides to the Phineas Gage issue. Besides the obvious, there's the fact that personalities change naturally as well; you'd have to set a boundary at which personality change makes a person not the same person. People do actually say "I'm not the same person I was .. years ago", which shows two things; first of all, people are inconsistent (using "I" while saying that the similarly-looking individual .. years ago is not the same person as you) and second of all, it's well known that people don't stay the same.

[GlyphGryph]

Well, clearly the person years ago is still me, it's just not the same me.

[Sheb]

But then what is me? We could define the self as a continuum of perception and experience (ignoring the obvious exception like people in a coma), then if a copy of someone was made, you'd just have two self?

I'm starting to feel that concept like me are like pornography: can't define it, but you know it when you're looking at it.

[wierd]

Slow replacement at the cellular level already happens now too.

Inside your cerebral spinal fluid, there are neurological precursor cells. Those cells HAVE been seen to integrate with the brain in damaged areas. Human brains damage themselves when under stress through poisoning by beta amyloid and other such things, like tau protein tangles. (There is still raging debate over weather these features cause the damage, or the damage causes the features though. There has been some animal model studies that show that a good night's sleep allows these products to be dissolved into the CSF, then whicked out of the brain before they can form plaques, which suggests that their presence is causal for those disorders, but this is still very preliminary.)  dunno if any of you have univerisity-level access to scientific publications, but if you do..

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22907556

From the abstract:

Restoration of the damaged central nervous system is a vast challenge. However, there is a great need for research into this topic, due to the prevalence of central nervous system disorders and the devastating impact they have on people's lives. A number of strategies are being examined to achieve this goal, including cell replacement therapy, enhancement of endogenous plasticity and the recruitment of endogenous neurogenesis.

*emphasis mine.

If you are good and healthy, your brain *IS* slowly being replaced with complex replicators that assume the function of dead or sick tissues already.

You would not notice if your brain was slowly replaced by artificial ones either.

To whit-- most people dont notice even when they have a brain riddled with swiss cheese holes from having exotic brain parasites in there. (yes, brainworms are a thing. Enjoy your undercooked pork! This is why your GF insists the kitchen counter be spotlessly clean kids.) The usually reported symptom given by sufferers is mild confusion, and chronic headaches. Very similar to developing migraines. As the cysts enlarge, it causes hydrocephaly, and seizures. In cases where the number of cysts is low, these latter stages may never occur.

[Sheb]

Just going to post the image for those that are too lazy to browse the link.

[scrdest]

Oh, cysticercosis. What happen when you decide that regular parasitic infections are just don't suck enough for your tastes (also true for trichinellosis, and the really exotic stuff). Other fun possibility is ocular infection. Image not included, because seriously, you don't want to see that.

Worse yet, the parasite is hardly exotic - obligatory testing and improvements in food processing reduced the infection rate, but contracting it from contaminated boar meat is very much a possibility. Actually, my high school Biology teacher showed us a piece of pig meat with the eggs VISIBLE ON THE MEAT (they kinda look like grains).

[miauw62]

Oh god, don't remind me of these things (and Naegliria).

[wierd]

Tapeworms are not rare, no-- But finding them in the CNS kinda is, especially in 1st world countries, where food handling, food safety, and abundant health laws actively prevent it.

Even then, most tapeworm infection occurs in muscle or gastric environments, not inside the CNS.

--but it does happen.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Oh man, if there were clones of me who were just like me I'd be totally cool with that. Which means all of us would be totally cool with that. We could actually get some shit done.

Step 1: Get ahold of that cloning machine. MOAR LEO!

[Dwarf4Explosives]

Worse than that = toxicoma ghandii (right spelling?). It affects your personality. A lot of people have it, too, and what's worse, it makes you like cats (DF is the perfect antidote to this, making you like !!cats!!).

Also, how many people would respond to being duplicated against their will with immediate retribution against the perpetrator, and how many with sheer chaos and confusion concerning the situation, do you think?