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body severed from you over the last ten years
were to be gathered together, then another human
being—identical to yourself could be constructed.
If you are a hundred years old, then ten ‘yous’
could be formed which, despite their exact
similarity to you in appearance, would be no more
than inanimate lumps of flesh, for ‘you’ do not
dwell within them. ‘You’ have abandoned these
old bodies and moulded yourself into a new frame.
So the saga of construction and destruction is
constantly being enacted within ‘you’ without
any evident change occurring. That entity which
you call yourself remains as it was. If you had
entered into a contract with someone ten years
ago, you would continue to admit that ‘you’
committed yourself in this manner, although your
previous frame is now non-existent. Neither the
hands, which signed the contract papers, nor the
tongue which testified to it, are any longer
attached to your body. Nevertheless ‘you’ still
exist, and ‘you’ acknowledge the fact that this
ten-year old contract was your own and continue
