The elderly lady who sat next to me at the bus stop said that she wants a whole body transplant. She’d “keep the original brain, though.”

As I got on the bus, I reflected that no one ever says the opposite: “I’ll keep my body but I’d like a brain transplant.” There are obvious reasons for this – if you had a different brain you wouldn’t be you anymore.

But I do find it interesting that the body is totally excluded from the determination of the self.

If my brain were transplanted into this old lady’s skull, I don’t think I’d feel myself at all. And I don’t think she’d feel herself at all if her brain was wired up to my body.