One of a Kind

If you are reading this, then you are a member of the human race.

You are a member of Kingdom Animalia, meaning you are multicellular, but, unlike plants, your cells do not have a cell wall. You are a member of Phylum Chordata, meaning you have a central nervous system, and Subphylum Vertebrata, meaning you also have a backbone to protect your dorsal nerve cord.

Your warm bloodedness and mammary glands put you in Class Mammalia. Your Subclass, Placentalia, means you were fully gestated inside your mother before birth, as opposed to being grown in a pouch like kangaroos.

Modern and fossil hominid skulls: modern chimp in the upper left-hand corner, then a chronologic sequence of hominids ending with modern humans. Image courtesy NSF (Click for Larger Image)

Like other members of the Order Primates, you have grasping hands, fingers, and both incisors and molars for teeth. Being in the Family Hominidae, you stand upright, have a large brain, stereoscopic vision, and a flat face. Your Genus, Homo, defines you as having an s-curved spine, and your Species, Homo Sapiens, means you have a well-developed chin and high forehead, which provides room for your brain’s frontal lobe, giving you cognitive ability to imagine the future and plan ahead.

There are presently 6.5 Billion beings in this club we call the Human Race. Even though we all share this taxonomic classification, we still exhibit a tremendous amount of diversity in our genes. Unless you have an identical twin, the chances of someone else having the exact same DNA sequence as you is 1 in 6 million, meaning there are in the area of 1083 people on this planet genetically identical to you.

Despite sharing this identical internal genetic code, known as your genotype, your outward expression of this code, your phenotype, is very different. Our DNA gives our bodies a great deal of plasticity when it comes to growing into our environments. All sorts of environmental factors, such as nutrition, climate, your mother’s womb, and physical experiences have all made your personal DNA expression unique.

Even if your genes did express themselves in the exact same way, as they almost do in identical twins, your personal experiences would be unique. Only you occupy the precise space and time in which you currently exist. No one else can occupy your space-time coordinates, and experience the world the way you do.

You will glimpse less than a century of the Universe’s projected googolplex years of life in your own lifetime (one followed by 100 zeros). The atoms that currently make up your body, atoms forged in the centers of stars millions of light years away and billions of years ago, will disassemble. Some of these will find their way into other living things, all of them will continue to venture throughout the Universe in one form or another until the end of time.

But nothing exactly like you will ever experience this Universe the way you are now. You are the Universe observing itself in this momentary flash of consciousness. Savor it.