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RE: Patterns and designs in nature - Leaves
Even nature follows mathematical equations and scientific formulas. And it does so because it's efficient. This is very nicely written and formatted. Really good.
Now, if we could only get us humans to be a little more orderly, right?
Well, maybe to a degree. I'm sure there's biological parts of us that follow some pattern natural to each of us, but our minds and emotions and personalities tend towards some form of uniqueness. Even so, I'm amazed when someone comes up to me and says they've met my twin or that I remind them of so and so. I've yet to meet any of these people to see whether or not they actually act or look like me, but I prefer to think it's not possible. How else will I be one of a kind? :)
That is one rabbit hole that is not always fun to jump down but is at least interesting. We often think we are all so unique and “original” when that is just not the case most of the time. This can often be seen when someone ask their personal assist from there phone or other services a question and it comes back with an answer that had been ask so many times a human was put in charge of creating something witty and cleaver as a reply.
Even what appear to be nonpatterns create patterns themselves by trying to avoid doing just that. I wish humans where far less mathematical then they already are. The Birthday problem in probability theory is quite interesting. It’s been something I’ve not had the time to properly understand for a while now due to many restraints in my own time. It is quite interesting really then when yes you do find more or less clones of yourself expect maybe you grew up in a different town, different country, had a different upbringing. That plays in some factor that make you different from another.
I’ve seen a couple of people who appear very similar to me. Two of them even had the same name and one of them even was very successful in the field I wanted to get into. Granted I have a very wide range of interests so that not really shocking.
DNA itself while we like to think it’s some complex highly variable thing. Once you start looking into it and realize just how constraint it has become over humans exists and just how much of it died off during the first few decades it is alarming. Even more so when they start connecting the dots and can relate large numbers of people together due to someone like Genghis Khan. It than is not that shocking someone we come into contact with has run into someone slimier as ourselves. Earth is after all a very small speck of dust!
Oh, I suppose my doppelgangers in looks and in personality are out there, I've just never met them. And the one or two times where I reminded a person of someone else, it was maybe in one mannerism, or because I liked to write. Well, that's a pretty broad stroke right there!
It's true though, as more and more people mix with others, there's bound to be less and less uniqueness just because at some point, you do manage to hit all of the different various combinations. There's an amazing amount of variations, however, and even though two people may look the same, doesn't mean they think or act the same, or want the same things.
If you go back far enough, you will find common ancestors for whole swaths of people. Especially if there were plagues or wars or famines or natural disasters. The strongest, and probably the luckiest, and along with the divinely preserved tend to survive. All kinds of things narrow down the field, as you said. The human version of natural selection.
Still, I don't think you can say any two human beings are exactly alike. They can be incredibly close, but there will always be something that distinguishes them.
A glitch in the matrix perhaps?
I haven't found my doppelganger yet, but I'm not so sure I want to...
Well, especially if they were exactly like me. That would be really spooky. How would I react to that? Would I even like them? I mean, I think I like myself enough, and I think I've found that nice middle ground between narcissism and self-loathing, but if someone showed up just like me in every way? I don't like it when other people try to finish my sentences. Of course, if they were getting it right all the time... :)
"... then I'd have a blast." (did I just doppelgang the end of your sentence?)
I feel like I've seen a movie on that exact subject. Actually, there are probably tons of movies like that. They're usually thrillers, and involve a lot of mirrors...
Or Sci-Fi, and involve a lot of clones, or shapeshifters, neither of which bode well for the original. Yeah, so I think I'm okay without there being an exact duplicate of me. Life has a way of becoming stranger than fiction, and I don't want any situations where I can't possibly dream up the twists. :)