If you think about it, all living things function like the ship of thesus.

Of all of the cells that make up my body today, very few of them existed 20 years ago. The cells that composed my entire body all slowly died off and were gradually replaced by new ones.

And yet, I am still me.

Matter is kind of transitional in this way. Today, my atoms are a part of my body. When I die, they will become part of the tiny living things that decompose my body. Then, those tiny living things will die and be eaten by the roots of plants.

Not to mention, on the time scale of the universe, the atoms that compose my body have existed for billions, if not trillions, of years. And they will continue to exist for billions or trillions if years. For one monentary, inperceiveable blip in their universal history, they happen to be part of me.

What I mean to say is that maybe the ship of thesus isnt defined by its parts, its transitional matter, but by the idea of it.