The short reply to this is that there are already circumstances where people have brains that have completely ceased all (electrical) activity and we don’t normally consider people who’ve gone through these processes to have been “destroyed” and then “recreated”.
This can happen in both cold-water drowning and in a surgical procedure called deep-hypothermic circulatory arrest. In both circumstances, a person’s body temperature is brought below 20C and their brain completely stops all electrical activity for ~30 min. When later brought out of this state, people retain their memories and sense of personal identity. Nobody typically treats these people as ‘mere copies’ of their previous selves.
Anyway, it’s a reasonable question and not a “non-issue”, but this plus other considerations make it seem not so problematic. Another consideration is the fact that over time you replace essentially all the components of your body through consumption and excretion, so survival can’t be based purely on physical continuity either.
The short reply to this is that there are already circumstances where people have brains that have completely ceased all (electrical) activity and we don’t normally consider people who’ve gone through these processes to have been “destroyed” and then “recreated”.
This can happen in both cold-water drowning and in a surgical procedure called deep-hypothermic circulatory arrest. In both circumstances, a person’s body temperature is brought below 20C and their brain completely stops all electrical activity for ~30 min. When later brought out of this state, people retain their memories and sense of personal identity. Nobody typically treats these people as ‘mere copies’ of their previous selves.
Anyway, it’s a reasonable question and not a “non-issue”, but this plus other considerations make it seem not so problematic. Another consideration is the fact that over time you replace essentially all the components of your body through consumption and excretion, so survival can’t be based purely on physical continuity either.