# Are We the Same Person from Moment to Moment? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 26, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-the-same-person-from-moment-to-moment/507821 "2009-08-26T21:25:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 26
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2009, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-the-same-person-from-moment-to-moment/507821/26 "2009-08-27T05:28:42Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > [“So what is this mind of ours: what are these atoms with consciousness? Last week’s potatoes! They now can remember what was going on in my mind a year ago — a mind which has long ago been replaced. To note that the thing I call my individuality is only a pattern or dance, that is what it means when one discovers how long it takes for the atoms of my brain to be replaced by other atoms. The atoms come into my brain, dance a dance, and then go out — there are always new atoms, but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday.” The same sort of insight made me start thinking in [URL=“[If reincarnation were true, would you care ? - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=511458)”]another thread]([Last Week’s Potatoes | Strange Loops](http://www.strange-loops.com/blog/?p=23)): > [@If reincarnation were true, would you care ?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-reincarnation-were-true-would-you-care/490538/31): > > I keep thinking of a rock in a stream, positioned such that the water flowing over it creates a certain pattern of whorls and eddies. The stream dries out, and the rock is left high and dry. Then it rains, the water flows over it again, and the pattern of whorls and eddies returns. > > Where did the pattern go while the stream was dry? Are the patterns you saw before and after the drought the same “thing”? --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-the-same-person-from-moment-to-moment/507821)._