Monday, April 28, 2008

The Knife Conundrum

I read this in The Economic Times a few days ago and found it to be an intriguing question.

Assume that you have a knife. An ordinary knife with two parts to it: a wooden handle and the steel blade. Now, after a few years of use, you find out that the blade is in a bad condition, has lost its edge and must be replaced. So you go ahead and replace the blade with another piece of steel blade.

Considering that the blade is the more 'essential' part of the knife, would you say that it is the same knife or a new/different knife?

Ok.. let's go ahead.

After another few years, you realise that the wooden handle of the knife too needs to be replaced as it has weathered considerably. You remove the wooden handle too and replace it with a new handle.

What now? Is it still the same knife?

Interesting, isn't it?

Now, let's consider the human body.

Considering that after every few years, almost all our body cells die and are replaced with new cells, are we then the same person or have we finally found an answer why man 'changes over time' ??

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My dear friend. You seem to be unnecessarily angry in the post. Checkout this blog
http://greatbong.net/
I have been reading it for past 2 years. Guy has got amazing sense of humor. I have sent this link to many of my friends. Some time back got most humorous blog of the year. To keep you cool. :)

Anonymous said...

So this common man should write.

Unknown said...

hmmm... so i am version 24.2 of myself.. literally:D

Shekhar said...

common man: My dear friend, I'm anything but angry in this post.

And as for Great Bong's blog, if you notice carefully, I've already blog-rolled him long time ago.

Cheers. :)

trash-u: ~laughs~ Well, aren't we all just improved versions of ourselves from yesteryears?