alt Hacker NewsWasn't the point of the Ship of Theseus precisely that establishing wether something is or isn't something else is at least complicated? Using it right after saying "X is still Y" kind of seems to make the opposite point.
Wasn't the point of the Ship of Theseus precisely that establishing wether something is or isn't something else is at least complicated? Using it right after saying "X is still Y" kind of seems to make the opposite point.
The point here is that even though the water is murky about it's intrinsic identity, we know that it's still a particular ship with a particular back story, making at least it's extrinsic identity an immutable known. Fairly similar to how - most, if not all - complex living organisms continually gain and lose composing cells throughout their lives, yet their individual identities remain fixed: "I am X and this is my dog Y".
Similarly, a "fork" as we understand it in the context of software is this thing that, even though it's a modified copy, retains its extrinsic identity: "This software X was worked on in Y context, and is now being worked on in Z+ contexts". Same software, even if it gets a name change.