The Great Gary

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Shizuo wrote on 2011-11-11 17:34

Okay, so I had this as an assignment in one of my classes, and it sparked a very heated argument. Me, being the psychology major, thought it was really interesting xD;; So, I want to see what you guys think. Some of you may have seen this before.

[SPOILER="Spoiler"]The citizens of Gary, Indiana own a boat that they have named The Great Gary. In 2000, they enter it for the first time into the annual Lake Michigan race. The Great Gary beats all the other boats, and the citizens of Gary are very proud of their civic achievement. For the next seven years, The Great Gary always wins the Lake Michigan race.
In 2008, there is a very bad storm, and The Great Gary suffers heavy damage when it is banged against the pier by the high waves. About half the boat's parts need to be replaced. After the citizens of Gary repair their boat, they do not want to throw away the damaged parts because they consider them of historical value. Instead, they take all damaged pieces to the Gary Boat Museum. The repaired Great Gary is returned to Lake Michigan, and it wins more races.
Meanwhile, some of the Gary schoolchildren come to the Gary museum on a field trip. As a class project, they take the damaged pieces and assemble them in the exact shape of the original Great Gary. Not all the boat was damaged, of course, so there are some gaps, but the museum curators generously buy a few extra parts to fill in those gaps.
The museum curators then have a brilliant idea. They put the reconstructed Great Gary as a museum exhibit and charge museum visitors $5 each to see "The Original Great Gary!"
This works well, and the museum curators are making a lot of money, until the captain of The Great Gary visits the museum one day and sees the exhibit. Furious, he demands to see the chief museum curator. "What do you think you're doing?" he shouts. "That thing in the glass isn't The Great Gary! The Great Gary is currently docked in Lake Michigan after having won the latest Lake Michigan race!"
"Your ship that has just won the latest race may be The Great Gary," says the museum curator, "but this museum exhibit is also The Great Gary."
"They can't both be The Great Gary!" exclaims the captain.

Is the captain right when he says there can't be two Great Garys? And if so, which boat is the real Great Gary?

As time passes, the ship on Lake Michigan suffers additional problems and undergoes additional repairs. A day finally comes when the last piece of the original Great Gary is removed and taken off to the museum. However, a replacement part is always installed so that there is always a functioning ship on Lake Michigan that continues to call itself The Great Gary.

Now that every piece of the original ship has been replaced by a new part, is the ship on Lake Michigan still The Great Gary? And if not, how many pieces did it lose before it ceased to be The Great Gary?[/SPOILER]
Armi wrote on 2011-11-11 18:35

and here I thought it would be a pokemon thread, anyways here.
Medusa wrote on 2011-11-11 19:49

[Image: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KxAd-UmJb7g/TTzQMMil3TI/AAAAAAAAHwc/KY9JNp71Qk4/s1600/Gary_the_snail.gif]

the real great gary.
RicochetOrange wrote on 2011-11-11 19:50

Quote from Armi;657052:
and here I thought it would be a pokemon thread, anyways here.

Same. Not related to Gary Oak at all.
Shizuo wrote on 2011-11-11 20:52

Okay, nevermind :/ you guys aren't taking this seriously at all. I really thought I'd get better replies that actually answered both questions [S]with reasons too[/S], but I guess not. Instead, I feel like we're in Bean Rua -_- If no one has anything to actually contribute, then I'll just request a lock.
Strawberry wrote on 2011-11-11 21:06

Noo, don't lock it. I find this to be quite interesting. I think it's possible to have two of them, yes. Both of them are siding with whichever one they own and is closest to them.

None of them are the original, to me. Each one has it's own half. Just because both of them were modified. The one on the lake was repaired, so they must have gotten modified parts for it, and the one in the museum is also modified, because they did buy parts to fill in the gaps.

Even if the one on the lake had the parts replaced by a new part, the oldest one will be the original one.

I don't think there's any right or wrong answers to this, is there?
Shizuo wrote on 2011-11-11 21:11

Quote from Strawberry;657172:
Noo, don't lock it. I find this to be quite interesting. I think it's possible to have two of them, yes. Both of them are siding with whichever one they own and is closest to them.

None of them are the original, to me. Each one has it's own half. Just because both of them were modified. The one on the lake was repaired, so they must have gotten modified parts for it, and the one in the museum is also modified, because they did buy parts to fill in the gaps.

Even if the one on the lake had the parts replaced by a new part, the oldest one will be the original one.

I don't think there's any right or wrong answers to this, is there?

Thank you.
And this a philosophy problem (kind of why I wanted people to be more serious), so no. You aren't right or wrong.