Are we all familiar with the Ship of Theseus? As explained by Wikipedia:
The paradox is most notably recorded by Plutarch in Life of Theseus from the late first century. Plutarch asked whether a ship that had been restored by replacing every single wooden part remained the same ship.
I’ve genuinely heard it refereed to as a the Sugababes problem.
I bring this up in the context of the 418 teapot, which you might remember, looks like this:
Careful readers might have noticed this small detail in the doghouse posts:
Yes, there’s been a small change. Chiefly because this happened when I was moving house:
(You can see both the teapot spoke jutting out, and also my glasses, placed just before a less photo-obsessed person might have rushed in and stood on them)
Sigh.
So I attached the slightly damaged pot onto a new laptop and ran the old code on it. Up and running.
However, visiting a Art4Fun cafe with a friend recently I decided to paint up a proper teapot. The shop glazed it for me and I got it by post recently. After a small amount of no-more-nails. The new and improved (but somehow the same) teapot lives!
This is the teapot being attached…
Ready to use…
…and ready and willing. It’s still available to ping, and it’s still in some sense the same teapot that will indeed make tea. It’s just a bit better looking now.