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So the body grows a head back. Does also the head grow a body back, resulting in two worms?

I know totally nothing about these worms, but my armchair guess now is that the brain in the head is a visual center for those eyes, and the nerves in the body have the memory.

I hope they'll figure it out! And that they'll be able to map individual neurons like the 302 neurons of a Caenorhabditis elegans. And finally that they'll be able to simulate those neurons in software



In reply to your first question, according to wikipedia, yes.

...each piece has the ability to regenerate into a fully formed individual.


That's rather nightmarish. "Cut a worm in half. Now you have two worms."

Reminds me of the famous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernaean_Hydra


What if you cut the top off the bottom you cut off of the old top? Now we're in Ship of Theseus territory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus


I don't understand why this is considered a paradox.

It is only a paradox due to flawed thinking of what is considered the same. The problem is when you think of same object as a binary (it is same or it isn't). If you think of same object as a spectrum it becomes trivial.

In case of the mentioned ship, as individual pieces are replaced, what's same becomes smaller and smaller part of the entire ship. If you take these parts and build another ship, that will be the same ship that you originally had.


Thing is, considering an object as a spectrum leads to other problems. If continuous spectrum, then _any_ adjustment gives you a new object: e.g., a wave eroded a few atoms from the hull, now it's a new ship. If discrete spectrum, then same problem as before.


You're still thinking in binary there. If a wave eroded a few atoms from the hull it's now the tiniest bit a new ship. If you round it to the nearest binary result you'd end up with "It's not a new ship".


With the same memories that will then result in a pair of worms terrorizing you.




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