this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2024
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This would only be the case if reincarnation is completely random, and it depends on what we consider an individual. You could arbitrarily define a human as just a cluster of cells, does that mean you could reincarnate as a single human cell?
Similarly, could you be reincarnated as a society? A body and a society are both a conglomerate of individual organisms...
Now I want to write a book about a world where individual humans don't have immortal souls but cities do. Would a person moving to a different city be like someone having a blood transfusion? If dead cities can be reincarnated as other cities, does that mean current-day Istanbul was Constantinople in a past life? Or does reincarnation happen more randomly, and Constantinople just happened to become some random town in New Jersey? Is genocide like murder for cities, or is it more like having a limb amputated?
~~oh shit i've accidentally reinvented hetalia from first principles~~
Yes, possibly
Yes, in fact, only for higher animals it is possible to draw a clear line between them. For plants (clones) this is less possible.
So considering the life of anything other than an animal, probably there is no clear "I" anywhere else. It is always rather a "we".
This is awsome, thanks!
You're welcome...?
The cells of your body are part of you. They share the same DNA and descend from the same cell (the fertilized egg) and depend on each other to stay alive. However there are more gut bacteria inside of you than there are cells of yourself (they are a lot smaller than human cells). And they are not related to you. So you could reincarnate as a gut bacteria of somebody else
Me: Dies
Me: Wakes up as a bacterium that was just asexually produced inside my former life's corpse
"I Isekai'd Into My Own Asshole And Now I Have To Eat Myself", now streaming on crunchyroll!
That's a debunked myth. The number of human cells and gut bacteria is about the same which is still astonishing. If you ask me to, I can look up the YouTube video I've learned it from
Yes, please, would you share that video? It sounds as fascinating as your reply is delightful!
I'd glad I can help! It was too late yesterday for me to just look it up in case but now I see you are interested, here you are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jijuG9tyoR0
That was interesting and fun, thanks. And also sad, it made me think of Aaron Schwartz. And sus, maybe because I'm too attracted to some common knowledge. ;-)
Thank you so much for taking the time and trouble.
OK, but there are some organisms that can live either as single cells or in colonies, like algae. How do you categorize them? Plus there are some colonial animals like Portuguese man o war that are composed of hundreds of separate individuals connected to each other, or ant colonies which work as a collective superorganism. And even in humans there are some cells that do not stay attached, like sperm cells. Could you reincarnate as a sperm cell?
By this logic (which I, as of now, ascribe to, entirely due to how cool it sounds), you would reincarnate as the entire ant colony. You would be the hive mind. Enjoy!
You’re already described in the third comment
Some could call human civilization a form of superorganism. So you could reincarnate as a city.
The fact that your cells share your DNA doesn't mean they can't have their own consiousness. They also don't all use the DNA the same way (that's why they differ). Some of your cells roam your body freely and even learn at "school" (certain leukocytes), and it's quite easy to imagine they have some kind of consiousness. Recomended watch: Il était une fois la vie.
Seamen.
Maybe every one of your cells each gets reincarnated as a distinct single cell. Some end up as part of multicellular organisms and some of which are single-celled organisms.
Of course.
Yes, and some of the bacteria might be gut bacteria.