Do we all have the same? Science’s answer

According to some ancient legends, look at your own legends Similar…a similar person – Also called alter ego or double A harbinger of death and torment. But what was then called the doppelgänger was a somewhat mystical character, unable to reflect his image in the water and associated with the shape of the “evil twin”, as in the famous story “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”.

What we now generally call a double, is something very common and not at all scary, and according to science, it is possible that we all have at least one.

Mathematical odds of having a similar

As the mathematician explains, David Aldous, of the University of Berkeley, two things are needed to scientifically determine the probabilities of a multiplier for each person: an accurate definition of double and real statements. Both things, according to the scientist, are too complicated to achieve when it comes to doubling.

Wanting to define the alter ego as a person very similar to someone with whom he has no direct relationship, there are two ways to ask the question: the first is to understand whether it is possible for there to be one of us. Double live todaythe second asks instead how likely it is that a person with a face identical to ours will have existed in the past or will exist in the future.

According to the mathematical models of Aldous, who is known for his studies on probability theory, the numbers are quite clear: out of the 8 billion people in the world, there are 0.11% chance you will have an ‘unidentified twin’. Therefore, only 11 out of 10,000 people can count on facing their own weakness in life, at least according to statistics.

The question of whether we will expand the accounts to past and all future: According to recent analyzes, there have been at least 100 billion people on Earth, in the (relatively) long history of human existence on this planet. Even assuming zero population growth as in Elon Musk’s fears, it is expected that 8 billion people will be born every 40 years in the future, 2 billion new people every 10 years.

What if our alternative egos already existed?

It’s not very rare, especially in museums, to meet your lookalike. Walking through the show rooms, you could surprise yourself with a sixteenth-century painting, perhaps in a hunting costume with Spanish royals, or in a modern painting you stumble across the face of a girl who looks almost identical to a friend. . Perhaps these people could not have imagined that one day, after hundreds of years, there would be individuals so similar to them.

However, it seems that faces tend to repeat themselves, at least to some extent. A study was published in 2015 on International Forensic Science For example, try to determine the uniqueness of the human face. “Combining the four face dimensions, the probability of finding a double is in the range of 10 to minus 7,” we read in the paper, “while increasing the number of characters to 8, the probability of finding a double is reduced to the order of 10 to -14, this is less than a chance in a trillion. “

This, however, is if we consider those considered to be “identical twins”, which are more similar to each other than identical twins. What we perceive as being similar to ours is much broader, and there is also important work of genetics to consider. .

Some genetic variants are more inherited than others, and sharing more genetic traits with one person – even on the other side of the world – inevitably translates into some similarity: Given that 14 of Leonardo da Vinci’s descendants are still alive today, the odds of meeting close are remote. Very not rare. According to Aldous, perhaps “everyone has a double, at least at first glance”: it’s one thing It happens to everyone more or lessAccording to the mathematician, identifying a strong similarity with another person.

If you are looking for your spouse, you can try to take advantage of the facial recognition software that popular websites like weird twin or family search, which allows you to search for your alter ego among users around the world. Or you can search for your double in art history thanks to Google, among the additions to large paintings and old photos: finding someone who looks identical to us is more likely to find a true identical double.