To be honest, the case is still the original one, but almost every other part has since been replaced. Now, I’ve taken it back to the shop where I bought it 20 years ago and asked them to upgrade the motherboard, CPU, and memory - the last of the original parts.

So, is it still the same computer?

I also like that I can just keep replacing parts on an existing product rather than buying an entirely new device each time. That’s exceedingly rare feature these days.

  • taiyang@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    I think that logic actually doesn’t hold up, perhaps because when a new piece is added, the PCs identity slowly changes. New pieces since it becomes part of the definition of what that computer is.

    Let’s take the idea of adding a new piece, say a secondary drive. Does that make the computer a new computer? Of course not, that drive belongs to the whole. Does it make it 6/5? Technically not, since you’re just counting the original pieces… even if said drive becomes integral to your PC by hosting you Linux distro you migrate to.

    Years pass, parts fail, and that Linux instance persists. Now you’re down to 0/5 but somewhere along the way your PC of Thesius changed along with it’s parts. Using that old definition makes no sense anymore. In fact, it never did. Some say it changed the night you learned about Arch Linux on Lemmy. Others say it changed when you left your Windows loving wife over her poor taste in OS.

    I… may have lost my train of thought. I guess all this is to say you can argue definitions all you want but there isn’t a mathematical solution when we’re taking about stuff like identity, definitions, etc… but to be fair, it’s a thought experiment, not meant to be solved so much as a way to provoke critical thinking.