The idea of “swapping people” only makes sense if you believe in an immaterial soul. Then you could grab John’s soul, and stick it into me, and grab my soul, and stick it into John, and now I am John, and John is me.
But if, like me, you think that you are a mathematical mind that is physically implemented on a human brain, this idea of “swapping people” is incoherent. There is no way for you to turn me into John or vice versa. If you rearranged all of my atoms into a perfect copy of John, there would be two Johns and I would be dead.
The idea of “swapping people” only makes sense if you believe in an immaterial soul. Then you could grab John’s soul, and stick it into me, and grab my soul, and stick it into John, and now I am John, and John is me.
But if, like me, you think that you are a mathematical mind that is physically implemented on a human brain, this idea of “swapping people” is incoherent. There is no way for you to turn me into John or vice versa. If you rearranged all of my atoms into a perfect copy of John, there would be two Johns and I would be dead.