Copied from Facebook. I hope I or a reader can find reliable documentation online.
Just realized it gives new meaning to the old phrase "you can't step into the same river twice" previously meaning the river changes. But now it also means "the you changes..."
Theseus has entered the chat.
ReplyDelete:-)
Delete"No man ever steps in the same river twice" is attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus (c. 535–475 BCE). It signifies that everything in life is in constant change—the world around us and our selves. Because the water flows and we change, neither the river nor the person is the same as time passes.
DeleteEven Johnny 5 needs juice and electricity to survive. The (human) carbon cycling keeps our internal SSDs sparked.
ReplyDeleteCodex: I share the same atoms with a chair.
ReplyDeleteI am a chair.
The original research seems to come from 1954: https://time.com/archive/6869550/science-the-fleeting-flesh/
ReplyDeleteThere's some followup discussion at https://stevegrand.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/where-do-those-damn-atoms-go/ and a podcast at https://www.npr.org/2007/07/14/11893583/atomic-tune-up-how-the-body-rejuvenates-itself
I'm not sure why it is surprising that the atoms in your body exchange. You need to eat and drink to stay alive. You know the nutrients do not just pass through.
ReplyDeleteYou can be a bit surprised by the rate at which atoms are exchanged but I'd caution putting too much value on the actual presented time-frame because that's very dependent on the actual definition of "all" you're using. One year sounds short indeed.
And while biologists can't define what life is, we do know it has to be self-sustaining and therefore dynamic. We certainly don't really understand what makes a person a person in physical terms, we can't really have much expectations on that field...
from 1954: https://time.com/archive/6869550/science-the-fleeting-flesh/
ReplyDeletehttps://www.npr.org/2007/07/14/11893583/atomic-tune-up-how-the-body-rejuvenates-itself
It's a good thing your source was FB: https://www.facebook.com/61579273676681/photos/scientists-confirmed-through-isotope-tracing-studies-that-98-percent-of-the-atom/122159764544975789/
I like how they add computers in support of the 1950's the article writes about.
p.s. I can't believe you even posted this.
Corollary: no you do not drink the same water molecules as dinosaurs did, water is broken down by photosynthesis and then remade by respiration. You get the same atoms, but not the same molecules.
ReplyDeleteHere's snippet from a piece I wrote on fishing many years ago:
ReplyDeleteI struggled for years with trying to get my head around the Buddhist concept of anatman, or “no soul.” Buddhists believe that there is no part of us that remains the same over time. We have, instead of an unchanging center, a sort of pattern integrity that persists, even though every part of us may change. According to Buddhists, this pattern is the product of causes and conditions, and it may continue even from one life to another. I finally found an appropriate metaphor in the river. When water flows around a rock, small whirlpools form and move downstream for awhile until they dissipate. The downstream edge of the whirlpool picks up new water as the upstream edge leaves water behind, and the pattern continues to exist until the conditions that brought it into being change and the whirlpool vanishes. I am no expert in Buddhism or any other belief system, but my observations of flowing water have given me an insight into causation and impermanence.
It's called a steady state or dynamic equilibrium - something dynamic that doesn't really change.
DeleteA simpler example is a full glass of bucket that's overflowing. New stuff gets added, other stuff gets out, and yet it stays full all the time.
Panta rei, as the old Greeks said.
Nothing is constant but change.
In life, a lot of people do not like change, and pretend they can prevent change. But change will happen, you can not stop it. You can only influence the direction in which things change. So accept change and influence wisely.
Codex: This is philosophy or philosophy of science. It is interesting how it's still around .
ReplyDeleteBTW meant to mention that Nature published a big study that AI is starting to cite nonexistent articles in all fields as a result of LLM.
Update from support in the moring inbox today:
ReplyDelete"Wishing you a great day.
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This email was generated by an AI support agent.
AI may make mistakes, and a member of our support team may review the conversation if needed."
Feel free to cite, as I did.
Codex: LOL. At least your AI is not a creative assistant.
Deleteits from 1954 https://time.com/archive/6869550/science-the-fleeting-flesh/
ReplyDelete