The Trans-Siberian Railway runs for more than 9000 kilometres between Moscow and Vladivostok. Is the Moscow end “the same thing as” the Vladivostok end? Are they “the same thing as” its passage through Novosibirsk?
If one is not puzzled by these conundrums about an object extended in space, I see no reason to be puzzled over the “identity” of an object extended in time, such as a human life.
Pinero pursed his lips and considered. “No doubt you are all familiar with the truism that life is electrical in nature. Well, that truism isn’t worth a damn, but it will help to give you an idea of the principle. You have also been told that time is a fourth dimension. Maybe you believe it, perhaps not. It has been said so many times that it has ceased to have any meaning. It is simply a cliché that windbags use to impress fools. But I want you to try to visualize it now, and try to feel it emotionally.”
He stepped up to one of the reporters. “Suppose we take you as an example. Your name is Rogers, is it not? Very well, Rogers, you are a space-time event having duration four ways. You are not quite six feet tall, you are about twenty inches wide and perhaps ten inches thick. In time, there stretches behind you more of this space-time event, reaching to, perhaps, 1905, of which we see a cross section here at right angles to the time axis, and as thick as the present. At the far end is a baby, smelling of sour milk and drooling its breakfast on its bib. At the other end lies, perhaps, an old man some place in the 1980s. Imagine this space-time event, which we call Rogers, as a long pink worm, continuous through the years. It stretches past us here in 1939, and the cross section we see appears as a single, discrete body. But that is illusion. There is physical continuity to this pink worm, enduring through the years. As a matter of fact, there is physical continuity in this concept to the entire race, for these pink worms branch off from other pink worms. In this fashion the race is like a vine whose branches intertwine and send out shoots. Only by taking a cross section of the vine would we fall into the error of believing that the shootlets were discrete individuals.”
I assumed that was the intention of the writers of Donnie Darko. The actual shapes coming out of their chests we got were not right, but you could see this is what they were trying to do.
I have no problem with an arbitrary border. I wouldn’t even have a problem with, for example, old people gradually shrinking in size to zero just to make the image more aesthetically pleasing.
The Trans-Siberian Railway runs for more than 9000 kilometres between Moscow and Vladivostok. Is the Moscow end “the same thing as” the Vladivostok end? Are they “the same thing as” its passage through Novosibirsk?
If one is not puzzled by these conundrums about an object extended in space, I see no reason to be puzzled over the “identity” of an object extended in time, such as a human life.
Robert Heinlein, “Life-line”
Wow, I’d love to see some piece of art depicting that pink worm vine.
I assumed that was the intention of the writers of Donnie Darko. The actual shapes coming out of their chests we got were not right, but you could see this is what they were trying to do.
It gets complicated if you do not draw an arbitrary border where matter becomes part of your body and where it ceases to do so.
I have no problem with an arbitrary border. I wouldn’t even have a problem with, for example, old people gradually shrinking in size to zero just to make the image more aesthetically pleasing.