<p>You have two friends: Alice and Bob. Suppose you have a way to remove a healthy neuron from Alice's brain and conserve it in some safe place. And, viceversa, suppose you have a way to graft this neuron in a certain region of Bob's brain (assuming the new neuron will develop connections with the others nearby).</p>

<p>Then keep repeating the following two steps:</p>

<ul>
<li>remove one neuron from Alice and another from Bob, both possibly from the same region;</li>
<li>graft Alice's neuron in Bob's brain and viceversa (again, both in the same region)</li>
</ul>

<p>until all neurons have been exchanged.</p>

<p>After we have exchanged all the neurons, <strong>will Alice and Bob still feel the same?</strong> If so, consider this: let <code>v</code> be the speed at which we complete the entire operation, with <code>v = 1</code> meaning instant exchange and <code>v = 0</code> meaning infinite time (no exhange at all). <strong>What would be the maximum possible value of <code>v</code> such that Bob and Alice still feel the same after the operation?</strong></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-04-21T03:10:40.903Z
Interesting question that has been around for a long time.
K A
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-13T22:18:55.713Z
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is based on science fiction and not rooted in scientific knowledge.
Steven Jeuris
<consciousness><philosophy-of-mind>
Consciousness and neural grafting
Giorgio
# Consciousness and neural grafting

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-04-20)

You have two friends: Alice and Bob. Suppose you have a way to remove a healthy neuron from Alice's brain and conserve it in some safe place. And, viceversa, suppose you have a way to graft this neuron in a certain region of Bob's brain (assuming the new neuron will develop connections with the others nearby).

Then keep repeating the following two steps:

* remove one neuron from Alice and another from Bob, both possibly from the same region;
* graft Alice's neuron in Bob's brain and viceversa (again, both in the same region)

until all neurons have been exchanged.

After we have exchanged all the neurons, **will Alice and Bob still feel the same?** If so, consider this: let `v` be the speed at which we complete the entire operation, with `v = 1` meaning instant exchange and `v = 0` meaning infinite time (no exhange at all). **What would be the maximum possible value of `v` such that Bob and Alice still feel the same after the operation?**

**Tags:** consciousness, philosophy-of-mind

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Interesting question that has been around for a long time.  
> **username_2**: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is based on science fiction and not rooted in scientific knowledge.  

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