Why are you, you?

[spooky3]

yes I will expand more but not now its 1 40 in the morning where I am,theres a lightning storm and monsoon rain outside. i'am half cut on a pint of rum guinnesse and carnation milk "an old voodoo drink" ;and theres somebody knocking at the door:suspect:hopfully bringing me my bed time pipe of opium:)

 

mmm, that's explains a lot...

 

Even though i'm sure that that's not an old voodoo drink! Still, one of my favourites...

[Cyclone]

Even more, if under precise conditions, even if two subjects were subjected to exactly the same events, just the physical make up of their human bodies would interpret and store the data differently.

 

We're like snowflakes.

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/20735

 

Not really applicable to why you are you though. Given the brain structure you have the other factor are the events you experience.

[spooky3]

Not really applicable to why you are you though. Given the brain structure you have the other factor are the events you experience.

 

mmm, what I said, the brain structure / body would still make a difference to just differing experiences.

 

 

The bit of that article I was referencing was:

If two growing snowflakes are exposed to the same temperatures and humidity and water saturation levels at the exact same time (live out the exact same lives, if you will), they may look exactly alike at the macroscopic level. In fact, in 1988, the Nancy Knight was studying snowflakes as part of her work with the National Center for Atmospheric Research and found two identical snowflakes of the hollow column type in a Wisconsin snowstorm.

 

But Caltech physics professor and snowflake expert Kenneth Libbrecht (the man who made the above graph) points out that if you look at any two flakes – even seemingly identical ones – on the atomic level, you’ll find numbers of water molecules and different layouts of those molecules (most water molecules contain an oxygen atom of 16O, but one molecule in every 500 has an 18O). One thing you won’t find? Two snowflakes that are exactly alike.

[Cyclone]

Yes it would. But in the context of the question from the op it would be a different person.

 

So when you ask, why am I who I am, the mutable part of the answer is experience, the immutable and implicit part is your brain structure.

[spooky3]

Yes it would. But in the context of the question from the op it would be a different person.

 

So when you ask, why am I who I am, the mutable part of the answer is experience, the immutable and implicit part is your brain structure.

 

Yes, but i'd say brain and body.

[spooky3]

Yes, but i'd say brain and body.

 

For example:

 

I recently sliced my finger quite badly, severing some nerves, I now no longer have the full feeling of touch at the end of that finger, therefore my sensory input is now impaired, changing my experience of the world.

[Cyclone]

The environmental affect of slicing your finger will change who you are (maybe more careful with knives in the future). You're body and brain chemistry are these substrate on which the environment acts.

[espadrille]

But does that matter in the event considered? Is the action not the child's choice?

 

For instance some children are taught to share, but will not!

 

You mean that they dont learn to share. There is a difference.

[Cyclone]

You mean that they dont learn to share. There is a difference.

 

I suppose you have to distinguish between choosing not to share and not having learnt the behaviour in the first place.

[spooky3]

I suppose you have to distinguish between choosing not to share and not having learnt the behaviour in the first place.

 

Just what I was about to state.