[benkahuna]

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I've been meaning to bring this up for quite a while and will do so now because it came up in another thread.

"Why would it be anything other than simply getting to be the little lucky sperm and egg that made it through gestation to allow me to become a person?"

So only that combination turns into "you". Might some other combination turn into the same "you" except with freckles (or a different sex organ)?

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I think you have to consider the fitness of all the sperm that make it to the egg and contribute to the breakdown of the egg membrane allowing one sperm to enter the egg. From what I understand, it takes the catalytic enzymes of multiple sperm to breakdown the egg. There's an element of luck involved, but genetics and the developmental/environmental aspects of spermatogenesis would determine what type of sperm would be most likely to reach the egg. Obviously luck is a major factor in which sperm make it. I'm saying there's a little bit of a team element involved with differential fitness for some members of the team increasing the probability of a specific range of "yous" rather than a singular luck factor as you imply here.

From a more philosophical perspective, the whole notion of "you" is pretty vague here. I would expect different genetics to lead to very different outcomes in a chaotic manner. How different would my life have to be for me to no longer be me? The combination of nature and nurture (genetics and environment) results in the person we become so from the point of DNA fusion producing a zygote, different, I'd even expect startlingly different, outcomes would result from the interactions with a zygote/morula/blastula/gastrula/neurula with one genome with its environment (the mother's Fallopian (also called uterine) tube and then uterus).

I could see the strict dependence upon initial genetics conditions resulting in a discernably different me though I would probably have a similar set of talents, disease profile, other physical traits, and behavior.

Obviously, my perspective is one of linear causality.

So, those are the assumptions under which I operate.

I consider action to be the defining characterist of a person. As Kuato said, "You are what you do." Given that is the case and given how unlikely I consider the action in a person's life to be the same with slight tweaks in genetics and interaction with the world in a chaotic manner, I'd say it's unlikely I would be the same me if my genetics were slightly altered by me having come from a sperm a couple microns away from the one that lead to me.