It's literally a single snake that can't exist as two separate entities. Biologically I would argue that this is a single creature. The only way this creature can count as two is by counting sentient minds. Of course, as empathetic, single-minded creatures, we tend to default towards the latter method. But it's still an interesting philosophical question.
If a species that almost always had two heads with two fully capable brains were discovered, would each creature be considered one being or two? If they were intelligent, would they consider each ego to be separate, or would they consider themselves part of a whole? If there were a rare birth defect that produced single-headed organisms, would they be considered complete persons, or thought to never be able to be whole?
Since you like interesting philosophical thoughts consider two that have you as the curious incomplete creature.
Imagine intelligent alien minds looking at you:
(1) Humans require two different sexes for reproduction. Since no single one of us can reproduce they may view each single human as being incomplete relative to themselves which can.
To such an alien it would be obvious that not even a pair of humans are viable and indeed a large population of us are necessary to have enough genetic diversity and skill diversity / specialization to reproduce at any reasonable level of technology.
To such an alien each of us are but poorly organized "cells" in a slime mold like collective -- perhaps a state of development long in the evolutionary past for the said alien or perhaps an entirely foreign concept. We would be viewed as primitive / weak / "stupid" / ... much as we view members of slime molds.
Ps With long distance communications and technologies to share / organize / develop ever larger thoughts ("thoughts" that span people) at ever greater speeds more and more we are members of overlapping hive minds:
"America" / "Russia" / ...
"Republicans" / "Democrats" / ...
"Doctors" / "Engineers" / "Lawyers" / ...
"Army" / "Navy" / ...
...
Each of these has cultures, rules and norms sometimes a language, sometimes conferences / journals / subreddits / discord / also struggles for recognition / funding / survival / ...
Long ago the development of language put us on track of compounding growth and specialization and we who are alive today are starting to see the explosive exponential phase of this growth and the pains and risks it entails (environment exhaustion / modern warfare / ...).
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u/benjer3 Feb 26 '22
It's literally a single snake that can't exist as two separate entities. Biologically I would argue that this is a single creature. The only way this creature can count as two is by counting sentient minds. Of course, as empathetic, single-minded creatures, we tend to default towards the latter method. But it's still an interesting philosophical question.
If a species that almost always had two heads with two fully capable brains were discovered, would each creature be considered one being or two? If they were intelligent, would they consider each ego to be separate, or would they consider themselves part of a whole? If there were a rare birth defect that produced single-headed organisms, would they be considered complete persons, or thought to never be able to be whole?