Det är en nästintill-identisk frågeställning lik Theseus paradox - han ifrågasätter ifall en objekt, vars partiklar blir utbytta, kommer att vara samma objekt, fundamentalt. Plutarch formulerade Theseus paradox på detta viset:
''The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned [from Crete] had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place, insomuch that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same.''
John Locke nuddade vid samma frågeställningen, men bytte ut 'båt' med, ens favoritsockar istället. Detta är för övrigt ganska lik Heraclitus påstående:
'You can never step in the same river twice, for other waters are ever flowing onto you'
Mer information om den ursprungliga källan till John Lockes undran hittar du här:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus