answer:It’s a little late in the evening to think this one all the way through, but I can certainly answer this part: What if 1 atom was missing, would you still be the same person? How many atoms would need to be missing before you wouldn’t consider this the same person (would this be different if it recycled your atoms from when they killed you to when they re-built you)? I shed atoms all the time. I file my nails and have my hair cut. I’ve lost teeth and had major surgery. I am at the point in life where I think I must be losing brain cells faster than I can make them. Yet I entertain the illusion that I am the same person now that I was when I started typing this post. As illusions go, it is a reasonably convincing one. When I start to decompose and fertilize some plot of earth, I imagine I won’t feel quite so much like myself.