The best $13 I've ever spent!

 

This is super cool - I've won an auction! A 1970s Seiko pocket watch write-off for just $13. Judging by the photos, most likely, the poor thing went through a washing machine. Externally, a disaster. Internally - just a blob of rusty mud. So why am I so excited? Because I have in stock every single part for this particular Seiko calibre, and like the Ship of Theseus, I can already see this railway pocket watch looking like new, and keeping perfect time. The whole restoration project shot in 4K would generate hundreds of thousands of views and steady advertising income for years to come. There is only one problem: I don't really have time to do it right now...  By the way, and if you are not familiar with the concept: the Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment that raises the question of whether an object that has had all of its components replaced over time remains fundamentally the same object. This concept is one of the oldest in Western philosophy, having been discussed by Heraclitus and Plato 2500 years ago. Since then, philosophers have been banging their heads to solve this paradox, which in a way remains unresolved to this day. Yet in my mind, the paradox could be easily solved in a very elegant way, by introducing the 'third party' with vested interests. Suppose that the watch was insured for a sum of let's say $1000. Then ruined by a careless owner, then restored by a skilful watchmaker who replaced every single part at the total cost of $1,000. The owner makes a claim to their insurance company who happily pays the watchmaker. Here is the punch line: while both the watch owner and watchmaker could agree that the newly 'recreated watch' may not be the original watch, such a dilemma would not burden the insurer. The insurer doesn't really care; because it is not his job to care about thought experiments, but material evidence. In other words, the paradox exists only if we want it to exist. And even then, it only exists in our minds.