Life and death

aidan24326

drkpower wrote: »

But is it as simple as that?

Identical twins with precisely the same genetic information, presumably an almost identical brain and very very similar environmental factors and experiences (if they were brought up together) can be hugely different people.

Identical twins will not have almost identical brains, not even close. There will be similiarities of course, as there is for all of us, but ultimately they are two completely different individuals with their own unique thoughts and experiences. 5uspect summed it up well enough anyway, as did Myksyk. I personaly know identical twins who have significantly different personalities and abilities, so there you go.

Who knows - but I think we are way too early in our understanding of the brain and how it reacts and interacts to come to a conclusion that it is all there is controlling/affecting us and that it is impossible that we could have existed in a different form before?

You're quite right in saying that our understanding of the brain is still limited (though steadily advancing), but the next part of your post doesn't really make sense. What else could be controlling us except our own body, and more specifically our own nervous system? Short of appealing to the so-called paranormal I don't really see where you're going with that one.

The important point is that your brain is absolutely unique, and the enormous complexity would make it damned-near impossible to replicate in any case. So even if another version of drkpower is typing on boards in an alternate universe, then whoever he is he isn't you.

Dave!

aidan24326 wrote: »

Identical twins will not have almost identical brains, not even close. There will be similiarities of course, as there is for all of us, but ultimately they are two completely different individuals with their own unique thoughts and experiences. 5uspect summed it up well enough anyway, as did Myksyk. I personaly know identical twins who have significantly different personalities and abilities, so there you go.

I suggest you research twins studies before you make comments like that

Monozygotic twins' brains are remarkably similar

Doctor DooM

Dave! wrote: »

I suggest you research twins studies before you make comments like that

Monozygotic twins' brains are remarkably similar

Genotypically similar but not phenotypically. Brains are trained neruel matrixes.

A good analogy would be that the blank canvases of the brains are the same, but the journey home from from the art shop will leave permanent, different marks on them which give them character.

Well maybe not a good analogy

Sheesh guys, do your homework

drkpower

aidan24326 wrote: »

Identical twins will not have almost identical brains, not even close. There will be similiarities of course, as there is for all of us, but ultimately they are two completely different individuals with their own unique thoughts and experiences. 5uspect summed it up well enough anyway, as did Myksyk. I personaly know identical twins who have significantly different personalities and abilities, so there you go..

I should have said almost identical brains genetically and physically; yet after very similar environmental factors are added, they can end up remarkably different (even at an early age).

aidan24326 wrote: »

You're quite right in saying that our understanding of the brain is still limited (though steadily advancing), but the next part of your post doesn't really make sense. What else could be controlling us except our own body, and more specifically our own nervous system? Short of appealing to the so-called paranormal I don't really see where you're going with that one. .

It doesnt have to be the paranormal. You made the point that what makes "YOU" is your brain. Thats fine but external factors can affect how your brain controls you. We understand very little about the brain. Who knows what else affects it. Different dimensions, alternate universes, former lives.

Dont get me wrong, all of this is unlikely, even fanciful. But we know far less about the brain than we know so I would be very reluctant to rule as impossible that an individual may have existed in a previous form or in a previous life .

Doctor DooM

drkpower wrote: »

I should have said almost identical brains genetically and physically; yet after very similar environmental factors are added, they can end up remarkably different (even at an early age).

Just to make it extra clear- the brains will actually become physically different as the human body ages, not just in the mind or some such. Different nueral pathways will be formed depending on individual experience.

chezzer

Dinner wrote: »

I didn't exist before I was born, so chances are I won't exist after I die.

The thing about this is , it's true .. but you could also say ... ok before i was born ... i didn't exist i was in State X ... yet ... I came into existence ... .. when i die i'll go back into state X ... and maybe can come out again ?? as a different person perhaps ... unfortunately ... what about a possible human that was never born ? like me and Kiera Knightley's kid .. for example .. will that "potential human" ever exist ..?? get's complicated ... so occums razor prevails and most likely death is the end ... that's it ... so make this life a good one !!

chezzer

Actually Frank Tipler in "The physics of immortality" gives the best explanation of an afterlife that i have ever read ... ever single human that ever existed will be resurrected in an advanced computer simulation ... not only every human that ever existed ... but every possible human ...

Sonderval

Death is nothing to fear. To paraphrase Mark Twain, you were dead for 13 billion years already and it wasn't that bad.

aidan24326

Dave! wrote: »

I suggest you research twins studies before you make comments like that

Monozygotic twins' brains are remarkably similar

The fact is their brains are different enough to make them completely separate, distinct individuals with their own unique conscious experience. It's now known that our brain is a dynamic ever-changing organ, with synaptic strengths continually modified by the thoughts and experiences we have. In saying their brains are 'remarkably similiar' it depends what level of description you're talking about. The overall system might look very similiar but the wiring details will be different enough to allow for the obvious differences in personality, ability and behaviour that we routinely observe.

Zillah

drkpower wrote: »

Different dimensions, alternate universes, former lives.

Jesus Christ.

No really, maybe Jesus Christ is influencing our brains. As is Dark Matter, and black holes and pixies and unicorns and extra dimensional aliens.

These are all stupid ideas. We should dismiss all of them because they have not a jot of evidence.

drkpower

Zillah wrote: »

Jesus Christ.

No really, maybe Jesus Christ is influencing our brains. As is Dark Matter, and black holes and pixies and unicorns and extra dimensional aliens.

These are all stupid ideas. We should dismiss all of them because they have not a jot of evidence.

In fairness, I did describe them as fanciful but merely hypothesised them in response to a suggestion that the only thing that controlled us was "between our ears".

Not so long ago the idea of external hormones (ie. pheromones) affecting our "brain" would have appeared fanciful. It is not necessarily fanciful now.