Identity

Who and/or what defines or identifies us uniquely? Is it our name, bio-metrics (voice, fingerprints, looks,DNA), skills or abilities etc.

If we begin with name, in this world with billions of people it is rare that we can or will have a unique one. As far as bio-metrics are concerned while we are all born with unique ones in this day and age with the advent of technology it is not far fetched to have or create people which have some if not all of our very basic genetic building blocks. Hollywood is rife with movies that depict these scenarios and it not science fiction at all anymore. These characteristics which uniquely identified us at one point can only be trusted to go so far. Then comes our skills and abilities. Things we are able to do physically and mentally which others can't but can always be trained or groomed to match to a great extent either on their own or by using the above methods.

It is probably for this reason that records are kept which keep track of who we are over generations, centuries or even millennia. But even then they are susceptible to being altered or doctored without proper checks and balances in place.

While all the above is food for thought; from a utility perspective we are increasingly being asked to provide more information to uniquely identify ourselves. The advent of a digital version of ourselves with the continuous need to reinforce our being is only the beginning. Moving forward this may proliferate into massive amount of information just for the sake of identification.

I wonder is there something about us that is uniquely us and cannot be recreated or regenerated in any manner. Or can we come up with something that identifies us uniquely with our personal self without reducing us to mere alphabets or numbers.

People at the forefront of biology, encryption and/or big-data can definitely come up with some creative solutions.