You are, in the most literal sense, not unique.

I was having a little discussion with @alexander.alexis a few days ago, and it raised a deeply philosophical question:

What is ‘me’?

Cogito ergo sum is a very simplistic way to put your mind at ease. Are we real, or a simulation? Is it even worth thinking about it? I think, therefore I am. Need not waste time worrying about any other niggling details, right?

But where’s the fun in that? The problem I have with cogito ergo sum is twofold:

• It is a statement of rest, an absolute. This contradicts the human mind, which innately strives to seek more, to push further, to go beyond the frontiers of thought and progress. I think therefore I am is little more than ‘God did it’ in terms of value to the human spirit of inquiry. It flies in the face of radical doubt.

• It is a statement that implies we are each unique, and I take problem with this. So does math.

So to me, the answer to ‘what is me’ is ‘I don’t know’. I can’t simply say I am human, because I don’t feel the ‘I’ part of me is the physical mass that is the thinly-haired mammal I seem to be enclosed in.

I can’t say ‘I’m a mass of particles’ because I don’t know which particles constitutes as ‘me’.

But I think we can generally be at ease knowing we are at least entirely unique. Right?

Right?? …

Am I unique?

Now I will answer this, but I need to get there in a roundabout way, so bear with me.

Earth

In order to be unique, you need to be the only one of you. On earth, that’s probably true; it’s a closed system of limited size and mass, with a mere

133,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

atoms residing within. Or if you want to be boring, 1.33x10^50.

I mean, that’s a lot of atoms, but it’s not even half of the number of possible combinations in a game of chess, at 10^120 or more, or

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

The Universe

So with such a pathetically small number of atoms, it’s not much to be proud of claiming to be unique. But when we think of uniqueness from a universal perspective, we run into a problem.

You see, the observable Universe is REALLY big, about 92 billion lightyears across, or

8,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000km.

In that much space, there is estimated to be about a hundred thousand quadrillion vigintillion particles, or 10^82. Still less than the chess moves, but it’s more to compete with when it comes to being unique.

The actual Universe

The observable universe is not ‘The Universe’. It’s only the bits we can ever observe. The actual universe is going to be much, much bigger, and in many scientific models, infinite.

But what if the Universe wasn’t infinite, but merely 1 Googolplex metres across? A googolplex is 10^10^100. Forgive me for not writing that down. In short, if you assigned one zero for every atom in the observable universe, you would run out of atoms before you could finish writing it down.

So if the Universe was this big, being unique is a problem. This is because there are only a finite number of possible quantum states atoms can be arranged in a given volume. For the volume of an adult male human, that number is 10^10^70. That’s a lot of combinations, but it is less than the size of a googolplex Universe.

Put simply, if you traveled 1 googolplex metres away from here, the chances of seeing exact copies of you sharply rises and the atoms are re-arranged into patterns they’ve already been set in before. If you think of a die with 10^10^70 sides, and roll it 10^10^100 times, the chances of rolling the same number twice is almost inevitable.

The fact that our Universe is bound by physical laws that are predictable and stable means that there is in fact an increased chance of this happening too, that we may find another one of ourselves on another planet, rather than just floating around in empty space.

An Infinite Universe

In an infinite Universe, this would mean there is a 100% chance that an infinite number of ‘you’ exist, mathematically speaking. In fact, you would see repetitions of the entire Universe. But wait, if there was an infinite number of you’s, why aren’t there 50 of you in my bedroom?

I’m not even going to try and answer that. Let’s just say there are many types of Infinities.

So, who is 'me'?

The problem arises when you actually meet the individual at the other end of the Universe. Presumably, they are on either an identical earth, or a planet that has shared experiences to that individual in order to birth neurons and shape their physique to be exactly as yours. So when you ask you#2 who is 'me', what would your answer be? If you#2 kills you, would it matter? I mean, they share the same memories and feelings and experiences, so it would be no different than a replication, continuing where you left off.

So I guess my answer to 'who is me' would be 'I am one, I am many, I am part of the Universe, I am of the universe', or some other Borg-like response. Obviously I'm not an actual philosopher or mathematician, so what would your answer be?

So although the chances are unfathomably high that you are indeed unique on this planet at least, there is, I suppose, a slim chance that an exact replica of you is here somewhere. Maybe in Zimbabwe, I dunno. Something to keep yourself awake at night with.