What Makes Us Who We Are

We are what we are because of nature (in computer lingo, our hard drive) and nurture (our software). Our genetic inheritance interacts with environmental conditions to make us who we are.

            The human genome is analogous to a 46-volume encyclopedia. Each chromosome represents a volume; a gene on the chromosome represents a page. The interaction between chromosomes and genes is analogous to the interaction of freewill and determinism.   Our development has a sensitive dependence on initial conditions. The genes we inherit are important. How our genes interact with the environment is equally important.

Little Did He Know

Tiny differences in input can quickly become overwhelming disparities in output. A butterfly stirring the air in Scarsdale, New York can transform storm systems in London the next month. A man pushes the snooze button on his alarm clock. He leaves his house in the morning thirty seconds later than usual. A swerving truck misses his car by inches. Walking from the parking garage, a falling wrench at a construction site knocks him dead. Little did he know that thirty seconds was a half-a-minute too late. Just as there exist too many butterflies for the weatherman make an accurate forecast all the time, psychiatrists have a difficult time predicting how an individual will respond to the alarm clock. Thus, there is no definite psychiatric explanation for why some lead successful lives and others develop emotional problems.             

Who Can Predict Success?

I was reminded of the unpredictability of life on a recent outing with my granddaughter. Following a thunderous rain, my granddaughter, Lori, and I left the house to play. Strolling to a neighborhood creek, we put two matchbook boats side by side in the stream. We ran as quickly as we could to the footbridge crossing the creek and watched the progress of the two little boats. Although these boats were identical in size and structure, one boat quickly sailed under our footbridge, while the other boat bumped along slowly, was caught in a hydraulic force, and spit into an eddy where it stalled.

            “Pop, how come that boat kept going and the other one got stuck?” Lori asked.

            Wanting Lori to be the smartest kid in gym class, I said, “According to scientists studying chaos theory, it’s due to deterministic non-periodic flow.”

            “That’s what I thought,” replied Lori. “I think I’ll go ask Mimi.”

            I never discovered Mimi’s answer, but Lori’s dilemma presents some difficult questions: Why did one boat sail swiftly with the current, while the other boat floundered in shallow waters? In somber times, we sometimes ask a similar question about our lives. Does the outcome of our life depend on the currents of fate or the structure of our life or something else? Are our actions determined? Do we have free will to sail the streams of our choosing?

            Watch two bits of paper flowing side by side at the bottom of a waterfall. What can you guess about how close they were at the top? Nothing. Watch two people sitting side by side at church. What can you guess about the experiences they have had? Nothing.

            Why do matchbook boats sail erratically? Why are our lives so unpredictable? Why does the kid voted most likely to succeed spend his life under a park bench while the class clown wins the Noble Prize?