Oh yeah, it's grown so old and stale now. The concept of an alternate reality or parallel universe, or whatever term is currently in vogue to describe the idea that there is, in a universe (or multiverse) as indescribably large (it's really, really big) as the one we exist in, the possibility that, in some other far-flung galaxy, a person exactly like you is living a life exactly like yours on a planet exactly like ours...except the trees are blue and the sky is green.
And he or she has a hyphenated name, like Kal-el or She-ra.
This was the content of tonight's conversation. Whether or not another you existed somewhere in the Universe.
I need to find more friends interested in sports, or sitcoms, or something other than Sci-Fi. This topic gave me a headache.
I will allow that there is the possibility that somewhere in the trillion quadrillion zillion square miles of the Universe (that's just an estimate - it's probably bigger) there just may be another bored moron just like me writing some meandering diatribe that delves into the possibility that there just may be another bored moron just like me writing some meandering...but given the probability factors...well, it's debatable.
In defense of my point, I offer up life on this planet. There are billions upon billions of life forms on this planet. Just in insects alone it has been estimated that there are 10 Quintilian of 'em scurrying around at any one time.
That's a lot of insects. And not a one of them are exactly alike.
The possibility that there may be two people exactly alike can no doubt be proven mathematically, but so far it hasn't actually happened. Not in the recorded history of humans on this planet, that is. Not once.
Which is itself, phenomenal. How much differentiation can their be?
You would think that, given the relatively small pool to work with (three major racial types, 23 chromosomal pairs (3 billion DNA base pair, twice that in the diploid genome), there would be a huge amount of overlap, and just by accident somehow, a perfect duplicate or two would be produced.
Some people think that perfect duplicates have happened, such as the case with Dolly, the first cloned sheep. But that is not the case. The process which created Dolly (and like animals) left a little of the donor mitochondrial DNA behind, resulting in a slightly different copy of the original.
Every organism that has been cloned by humans, either naturally (as is the case with twins - twins are basically clones) or unnaturally (tadpoles, mules, camels, etc.) have been similar genetically...to a degree. But none have been similar in temperament or personality.
And that right there is the catch. Temperament and personality. Scientists have found differences in temperament and personality between ants. It's incredible how even the most elementary of organisms react to provocation or stimulation differently.
But I believe it is also necessary not just here on earth, but throughout the Universe. I believe that someday a much bigger brain than mine will prove that it is absolutely essential to the continued existence of the Universe that no two lifeforms ever be exactly alike.
Two lifeforms, thinking the exact same thoughts, feeling the exact same emotions, at the exact same time, whether under blue skies or green, would probably violate some unknown law of nature and result in the immediate collapse of all known and unknown realities.
I wonder if anyone else has thought of that? Probably...in a universe this big, the chances of a lone, original thought have got to be infinitesimally slim.
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