Advanced Essay #3: Who and what are we really?

The real thing:

When someone is ask who they are as a person, they most likely respond with something like “My name is …...”, or it may be more specific. The answers are most likely along the line of race, gender, and whatever is special or different about them. But who we are is far more complex than what most people think.The question of who we are is far more than just the things that appeared on the surface.

Who are we really? Are we residing in our own body?

Our bodies are made of tens of trillions of cells, and many times more microbes live inside our body, organisms that aren’t us, that is. Our cells die at different rates, and when new cells are created, mutations can sometimes occur.

If the cells are mutated, are they still a part of us anymore? Are we still considered “us” with all these microbes living inside of us? Did that previous “us” die when our cells died?

When people have seizure, parts, even half of their brain with seizure can be removed, as a way to treat it. If people are able to live with half of their brain, so imagine this scenario: person A’s brain was taken out, each half of it was putted into person B and person C, two brainless bodies. Person A no longer exist, person B and person C are now both alive. Which one of them is person A now? Who owns everything person A used to own? If person A was married and have kids, who is person A’s spouse’s spouse, and who is person A’s children’s parent?

If a scientist were to make a clone of you, or change every single cell in you, which one is you?

Or maybe, we are not our physical body, but rather our DNA, we survive as our DNA survive. But what happens when mutations occur in our DNA, are we still us? Since our DNA passes down to our biological children, so are our children a part of us? But can multiple quantity of you exist at the same time?

Maybe, we are our consciousness. Consciousness is basically our awareness to our surroundings and what is going on around us. But who and what are we when we don’t have our consciousness? Are we something that is considered “unknown”? Do we still exist if we lose our consciousness? When we fall asleep, or how about before we have any consciousness, like when we are small babies; did we exist back then?

Are we what we remember ourselves as, our memories? But what if we don’t, what if we lost all our memories due to Amnesia, are we still us? How about when we don’t have any memory, like when we were little babies, who and what are we? If you remember yourself as, say a god, are you really a god then?

Are we still the same person as who we were yesterday? Are we going to be the same person as who we will be tomorrow? Have we died every night when we went to bed and reborned when we wake up the next day?

Or maybe, we are just bodies of thoughts that think we exist, but we don’t actually exist, and we are not real. Who knows.

But one thing we do know is, who and what we are is far more complex than what we thinks. As scientists and philosophers are still trying to figure out who and what we really are, here is one thing to be certain: you are you, whatever you think you are, your physical body, DNA, memories, consciousness, belief……. Whatever it might be, you are just you, doing your best to survive in this cold and cruel world.

More sources to watch + reference:

Crashcourse. "Personal Identity: Crash Course Philosophy #19." YouTube. YouTube, 27 June 2016. Web. 19 Jan. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trqDnLNRuSc>.

WirelessPhilosophy. "PHILOSOPHY - Mind: Personal Identity (The Narrative Self) [HD]." YouTube. YouTube, 05 Feb. 2016. Web. 19 Jan. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcIqoN9oRgo>.

Vsauce. "What Is Consciousness?" YouTube. YouTube, 06 Jan. 2012. Web. 19 Jan. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjfaoe847qQ>.