The only thing constant is a facade

"The only constant is change," is an obvious contradiction, but I never saw it like that before.  Constant means that a things won't change and change means that they will.  Of course this maxim (is it a maxim if it's not an imperative?) is not really true if we're going to use it in science.  Science has a similar theory (among others) called entropy.  Entropy is really just disorder.  But there is another contradiction in the fact that if you call something disorder, that is a type of order that you are declaring the 'disorder' to have.  You have categorized it.  By calling the disorder order, you have ordered it.  Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.  (Look it up.)  So my physics teacher in High School Mr. Bashant famously asked when disorder becomes order, and when order becomes disorder.  

Now that that's in order (pun intended), we can move on to our own lovely lives.  

Change gets down to the very root of our selves.  If you have any experience, then you are a changed person.  If you are a changed person, you are a different person.  If you are a different person, you are not the same person who was before.   I had a really intense conversation with Professor Smythe one time in class like this.  Who am I if I am not the same person I was?  I was desperate. I said something along those lines.  Professor Smythe said, "Then you're a philosopher."

The ship of Theseus problem goes something like this.  I've seen it on wikipedia, and I went over it in class with Professor Auerbach;  and perhaps  Professor Jesseph.  I also went over it with my adviser Professor Kasser one time  (same one from earlier this blog).  Jesseph also had a cool philosophy-of-self problem that I would like to present.

Theseus has this ship, and it was brand new.  But, because Theseus was a perfectionist, if any board looked slightly scratched, the crew had to throw it overboard;  they then would have to replace it with a brand new one.  A lot of times, Theseus would just throw them over if he got a hunch that they looked bad, even when they didn't.

Well, lo and behold, over the course of months, the boards floated to the other end of the port, and another King took all of the boards, and had his crew make a ship in the same exact style as the original ship of Theseus.  This one used all of the original boards that floated down.  When it was ready, King Facadesaside took his ship down to Theseus.

The question is, between the original ship with the replaced boards, and the ship with all of the original boards that looks exactly the same, which one is the real ship?

This is really a problem of self.  I fully understand where one could substitute in a person for the ship, but there is something that resonates with me here.  

Kasser's answer was that a person is the same person, and the ship is the same ship, so long as the changes happen slowly, over time.  

So here is an answer to our problem of experience (that changes you);  it's Kasser's answer that we just rewrote.

A person is the same person so long as the change happens over time;  slowly.  The only reason that we have a problem is when we take a big break.  Right now, I'm thinking of how a person could consider themselves when they are three years old when they are in their twenties.  That's a big break.  One reason that everyone can consider that person the same as the three year old is because it happened gradually.