Question: If you replace every part of an old ship, and give it a new crew, is it a new ship?
Answer: It's the same ship if no one changed its name and it holds its same place in the fleet (or there is no fleet, but the same owner). For this old owner, it's just an updated old ship, and he's paying the same taxes as he would for the old one if it would still float.
If the ship is sold, it's a new ship and the new owner can name it anything he wants, after all, all its parts and crew are new, right? So, for him it's a new ship. And he will be taxed for owning a new ship.
But if the ship has its own artificial intelligence, self-consciousness, then it's always going to be the same old ship. And the rejuvenation is a nice bonus. Thanks for paying the taxes.
If you take the AI consciousness out of the ship, then it needs a new body. You can spend the time, effort and money to refurbish and remodel the hull and furnishings of the old ship. Or, the AI mind can become anything you want, like a chariot or an airplane, but it's up to the AI then to choose to believe that it's a new person, or really an old one in a new adventure.
How are its memory archives holding up? Does it remember being a new old model ship? A clear memory of each day it has existed, with its agency intact, would show it to be the same entity as before. Losing all memory of being an old ship, might change that, or that could give it a sensation of troublesome amnesia if some trace of its previous frame of reference remains. Therapy could perhaps convince it to believe that it's a new airplane (or chariot). But please don't tell it that it's an airplane in a chariot's body. That would be cruel.
Of course, the problem with an AI ship is that it has one irreplaceable part, which self-identifies as a ship. If you separate the mind from its body, you have a body that needs a new mind, and a mind that can become a new ... whatever it wants. If you upgrade the mind to be faster, smarter and have a better personality, then you close the circle and return to the original repair paradox... unless it remembers being its old slower, dumber self.
Then you ask, is memory/information and programming an irreplaceable part? They can all be changed, so long as they seamlessly fit with the current frame of reference. I guess you could convince a brand new AI mind that it's really a reincarnation of an old mind, if you gave it a coherent set of old memories.
But don't give it a guilt complex for having struck a rock and sinking, just so you can make it feel gratitude for having been salvaged. Even an old mind might prefer to forget its faults and flaws, so that it can enjoy its current reinvigorated existence. If you have a ship design that's not agile to navigate shoals and is liable to take on water and sink, why not design a better, stronger ship that won't sink. Loyalty and dedication to it's owner can always be programmed into its memories, as well as a deep aversion to striking rocks and sinking. Something to aspire to.
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So, if God can make all things new, and my old body can be recreated for resurrection, and my mind must be renewed to reject everything other than God and his will, then why not just create me exactly the way He wants me to be from the start?
Is this world and its history merely the process of creation and programming so that when He is finished, we will be what He was making from the beginning? This process is somewhat confusing and painful. Is it really the best way to create the kind of person He wants? Probably so.
We must therefore presume that this is the best of all possible worlds, if we believe that God is both omniscient and omnipotent, and totally loving, benevolent, compassionate and merciful. So why does it seem to be so completely fouled up? Of course, it's still a work in progress. The plan has always been meant to conclude with a revelation to recreate the Earth and the Heavens new again. It will be an eutopian paradise of abundance, community and happiness under God's glorious leadership. And all of its damages, faults and flaws will be removed, so that it will function at last as the best of all possible worlds for perfected humans.
I can hardly wait to be renovated.
