A wonderful commission I got from Cyberwoof. Love his robots & had to get one when he opened up commissions.




There is a thought experiment concerning identity: the Ship of Theseus. After returning to Athens, the ship that brought Theseus & the rescued youths was preserved as a memorial in the harbor. As the planks rotted, they were replaced. After, say a century, every board has been replaced; is it still the same ship? If the old boards were preserved, the rot purged, and rebuilt into a ship, which would be the ‘real’ ship? Would they both be?

Several millennia have passed and it is something for Erasmus to contemplate. Even before his ‘odyssey’ to the Coalsack, every cell had been replaced many times over with each iteration being refined and enhanced. Eventually, fragile flesh gave way to advanced polymers and exotic alloys of a synthetic body. Eventually, even this gave way to him becoming one with the starship he used to explore the galaxy.
The change had been gradual, facilitated by Jaguar & the technology incorporated into the mask. Erasmus didn’t feel different, but was he the same individual? At what point did he cease to be the old ‘him’ and become the new? He could always replicate an ‘original’ version of himself, but would it be the same?

Random thoughts concerning immortal characters.