The Fairphone of Theseus

[paulakreuzer]

@4ndy

Nah, the chicken-egg problem is easy by comparison, the first chicken came from an egg laid by captive red junglefowl.

But what if one switched the IMEI stickers and spoofed the IMEI number?

Well obviously then chickens will die out because they will all lay red junglefowl eggs.

No seriously: That’s exactly what I meant here:

@paulakreuzer

If you however replace large parts of something, where each part can be clearly identified as a part of the original - like with a modular phone - then the question is which part is the one that is most determining. And if e.g. we say that’s the core module for a Fairphone, what happens if we change smaller parts in the core module?

If we say the core module is what determines which FP2 you have, then which part of the core module is most important? I’d say switching a sticker and some software code wouldn’t be enough to change the phone - you just made it hard to identify it (which was probably the purpose) - but I don’t know what on the other hand would be enough change.

From a circular economy standpoint:

• original FP (possibly with peripheral modules changed)
• upgraded original FP (with peripheral module(s) upgraded)
• reused original FP (with all data from the original user wiped)
• repaired original FP (possibly with parts on the core module exchanged for parts with same purpose)
• modified original FP (with DIY modifications made on the original core module in order to enhance something)
• refurbished like-new FP (made from broken original FP - sent back to factory where everything broken is repaired and replaced and the FP gets a new IMEI, a new battery, a factory reset and a new life)
• recycled new FP (theoretical FP made of all the shredded material of the original FP - which isn’t technically possible yet).

From a different understanding of originality standpoint:

• original FP (each FP ever sold by the company, no matter how many parts were replaced as long as they were replaced with equivalent parts from Fairphone)
• FP version 1.x (each FP ever sold by the company with upgraded modules as created by the company)
• forgery FP (phone created by a manufacturer that steals the blueprint of the FP and rebuilds a similar phone with the same tech specs, but probably doesn’t care about the fair aspects)
• facsimile FP (phone created by different manufacturer that tries to rebuild the FP as accurately as possible - so also with all the fair specs)
• derivative FP (phone built on the blueprint of the original FP, but with certain things changed deliberately - like this)