This text questions the idea that there is such a thing like an individual identity. The thoughts hereby are based on the authors observations (for many things one just needs to LOOK…) and the work of Tim Ingold, Ernst Mach, Daniel Kahnemann, Benjamin Libet and Humberto Maturana, all of them as the maybe most influental source of thought inspiration for me. Among many others. Uncountable others.

Uncountable others not only for the reason that the things in the head did not grow there but were achieved through the lifetime. The brain is the organic part that creates thought based on previous experience. And experience is an ongoing process which affects the thinking world.

Inspiration! Some people might respond concerning the authors last claim. “What about inspiration? What about new ideas?” Did these things not grow in ones brain without previous examples or experience? The author dares to answer: There is no such thing as pure inspiration, as the pure idea, as the thing which only comes from within. One can move things in the mind one has names for and one knows. It is possible to move these things into new positions and confront or combine them with other things of knowledge and with names. Sometimes this happens in the mind and sometimes we do it while doing – the painter who starts a painting and follows her intuition to develop it for example.

Given the agreement that the brain processes information it got from outside: what happens to this information? It is alternated according to new knowledge and new experience which again comes from outside. As an example: If a person moves from one context into another (from Bejing to Cairo) this relocation will influence the very behaviour of the person. One adapts subconsciousness to the new circumstances and behaves in new ways. The described thing is already valid in small changes, like relationships for example: One becomes a different person according to the the phase the relationship is in and to the person it is to.

All this just to illustrate that the human mind is a fluffy thing – no identity valid for now and forever. (as long as one does not stick to the exactly same living circumstances all life long; this might result in a stable personanlity caused by the lack of stimulation and without defining a real identity as the stimulus could always happen.)

So, the knowledge comes from outside, the experience comes from outside, the stimulus come from outside. Nothing left to come from inside but the processing of influx – and hereby everything is processed subconsciously before reaching the light of consciousness. The human brain is a processer of infomation which comes from outside. All identity is based on this information. So one might say all identity comes from outside and always is outside. A Person is not a defined thing but an individual whoms identity is re-created every new moment of interaction. We are not in state of being what we are but in a steady state of becoming who we will be.

Some might feel a bit dizzy accepting the proposed idea. If we accept the preciously mentioned we need to see the world with different eyes. It is not any more the individual who is in charge for the very behavior – it is more the environment. And the environment is also nothing defined and nothing with a consciousness. Panta rhei. No. Not rhei. Panta ebullio. It is a steady bubbling and boiling of things which dictates and creates the float of everything.

We could understand the human mind as a processor of information and the human body as a processor of energy. Of course are both parts intertwined and connected and much more complicated than we need for the reasoning here. The important thing is that the mind works with information and the body with energy. External information and external energy.

Both things are not part of any given person. The connection to the world beyond our skin is obvious: we eat, drink, breath, bleed, touch … we listen, watch, smell, feel… over a certain time all these sensations sum up to form a personality that is valid at a given time and within a given context. This restriction of validity is because all the sensations were made in a certain context and are therefore bound to this context. A change of the context might add new signals and alternate the personality.

Nobody can be completely disonnected from a context. Even in an empty room we have the room around us and the feeling in us. To derive somebody of his complete sensual sensations would have a severe impact on his state of health.

Everybody acts within a given framwork of relations and personality is often affiliated with the mind. So we might take the mind in closer consideration.

To approach the topic from a different angle: What makes a personality? We might say: The parents, the education, the culture, the food, the environment… and some more. The parents deliver a certain genepool but also education and training and socialization. Somehow the same but on a different level does the enviroment and the culture. Our behavior is defined by many constraints we have no influence on.

Still… there is a mind behind the skull. This mind processes information and evaluates situations and comes up with decisions. But all this is based on external input. This input might happen just on time, for example during a dialogue, or long-term via education or experience. And some thing do not even need to be learned as they are already part of the basic pattern of behaviour defined by the genes.

So… there is no such thing a individuality or individual responsibility. It is more a vast network of brains and knowledge transferred via the means of communication and evaluation. Objects communicate as soon as a person evaluates a given scenario based on previous experience. This experience again did not grow in the brain but was gained through behaviour within a given context.

The solace of all this is, that we can’t get lost without leaving traces. Our mind is part of a bigger context and while some ideas a preserved via the mind, the idea might preserve some traces of a single persons mind.