Who or what am I?

Question

On average any two sperms from one male will share about half the same genetic information. The chances are vanishingly small, but theoretically, two sperm from one male could be identical. If identical sperms are headed for an egg, the genetic makeup of the resulting zygote will not depend on which gets there first because in either case the zipping up of chromosomes would necessarily occur in exactly the same way. Though genetically identical, the two zygotes are two different beings, one that came into existence and one that didn’t. If the sperm that I started from had been beaten out by a different but identical sperm, the resulting being would have started just like me in every way, had the same experiences as I, and would have turned out just like me, but I would not exist. So if my "nature" and my "nuture" could make something other than me, then what is it that makes “me”? Who or what am I?

Answer 1

Your question's last line seems to answer itself - if both of these things make up or change who/what you are, then you are a combination of that nature and nurture.  You prefaced that with a situation where the starting DNA would have been identical but different actual molecules and concluded that this fact would make you into a different being, but you will need to be clear on how in fact you would be different.

The nature/nurture argument has a flaw, though, which is that those two umbrella terms don't really encompass the untranslateable subtleties of, say, the felt inner experience of a mind, or the immesurably small differences in quantum state of the atoms of our bodies.  

If you define who you are along any of these lines, you will feel like you must look at how things may have differed in other circumstances.  But perhaps all you really need to define who/what you are is to examine what you in fact are, and not who/what you could have been.

Answer 2

Yarghh!!! You're a cyborg!

No, really, just kidding.

Look at it from a different perspective. What you're proposing is very similar to identical twins. While they share the same genetic information, the sum total of their experiences make them who they are. These experiences most likely are NOT identical experiences. So, no, in all likelihood, if you were really biologically sprung from the other sperm, you might not be the "you" that you are today.

Answer 3

you are an illusion.

Answer 4

Beyond the physical, you are a metaphor.