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Because we are self-aware and apparently self-contained in our heads, we tend to think of ourselves as separate individuals. We may recognize our interdependence with other individuals of our own and other species, but we generally think that we are individual beings. By projection, we may think of all life as collections of individuals.
But that notion quickly breaks down when we look at plants. Many plants can be broken apart to form new individuals. Sometimes plants merge together; are they one, or two? Plants, as well as animals, are collections of cooperating cells. Our bodies contain far more bacteria than human cells, and many of our cells can be extracted and grown in laboratory dishes. So, where do I end — when is something not part of me anymore? When it breaks off? Maybe the essential “I” is just my brain; my body, which supports my brain, could be lost and I would still be here, assuming my brain had access to some futuristic laboratory that could keep it alive in a jar or a robot.
Have you ever thought about the process of replacing bits of your body with mechanical devices until there is nothing left that is organic? After replacing all the major organs of my torso with artificial versions, I could slowly replace parts of my brain with more efficient computer components until there was no grey matter left. At what point would I die? Would I notice? Do I have a soul that would fly off while the mechanical me kept on living?
The fresh water hydra is a little creature that can reproduce by “budding.” Baby hydras form as little bumps on the side of the adult and eventually mature & break off. At what point do you move from one hydra with a bump to two individual hydras? This brings up human reproduction. At what point does the fetus become a separate individual? At conception, when it’s just a tiny fertilized egg? When doctors might be able to keep it alive outside the body? At birth? At age 26 when its brain is fully developed? Are sperm or eggs part of your body or half-humans you are storing in case they have a chance to develop?
All of the matter that makes up my body is continuously being exchanged with matter outside my body. I am absorbing molecules from food, water, and air. The matter that made up me years ago is somewhere else now; I am made of new stuff. It is…
