We each like to think that we’re the captain of our own ship, the Zen master of our own dojo, and the director in our own movie. Most of us want to be independent, to think for ourselves, and develop our minds as we see fit. But how unique are you really? How different are your experiences than anyone else’s? If you are ‘one in a million’, that still means there are 8,000 people in the world pretty much exactly like you. They may live under a different political system, speak another language, or they may be at another level in their quest to be themselves.

The Ubiquitous Self: Our Shared Foundation Some things are, within reason, ubiquitous to us all. We’re human beings. We all have belly buttons. We all eat, blink, and shit. Everyone breathes, grows, and digests. The cells in our body all die and are replaced, the longest taking seven years. So, every seven years you are an entirely ‘new’ or replaced person.

Your body exists for a few reasons. A healthy human has many organs all complimenting each other, and they assure that the heart beats and the brain processes. These appear to exist to keep one alive and thinking. Beyond that we are meant to move on our feet and grasp things with our hands. So, if the heart keeps beating, our brain continues to think, and it moves our physical bodies around.

While thinking and moving around, we are subject to events, emotions, and experiences to which we apply our five senses to investigate, deduce, contemplate, accept, and solve. Like maybe if a berry is poisonous, if you’re being cheated on by your spouse, or whether seeing a sequel is worth the last bit of your hard-earned money.

The Data of Human Potential So, who are you really? You are a wholly unique human being borne into, and a product of, the fundamental influencing factors listed. Even though they may seem limiting, you are ‘this’ generation's iteration of a person with the criteria listed here.

Biological & Cognitive Metrics

  • Biodiversity refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence.
  • The average adult human brain can store the equivalent of 2.5 million gigabytes digital memory.
  • There are 27 human emotions: admiration, adoration, aesthetic appreciation, amusement, anger, anxiety, awe, awkwardness, boredom, calmness, confusion, craving, disgust, empathic pain, entrancement, excitement, fear, horror, interest, joy, nostalgia, relief, romance, sadness, satisfaction, sexual desire, and surprise.
  • Seven ways of thinking: Critical, Analytical, Creative, Abstract, Concrete, Convergent, and Divergent Thinking.
  • Human Genome Project: 20,000–25,000 genes.
  • 43 facial muscles capable of over 10,000 expressions.
  • Hair count: blondes ~120,000, brunettes ~150,000, redheads ~90,000.
  • 10 classifications of disabilities, forming 21 distinct types.

The Societal Canvas

  • 7100 languages, 3800 cultures.
  • 41 musical genres, 28 dance styles.
  • Over 12,000 job/career choices.
  • 250,000–300,000 edible plant species.
  • 65,000 living species of fish, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and birds.
  • 10 political systems: Democracy, Communism, Socialism, Oligarchy, Aristocracy, Monarchy, Theocracy, Colonialism, Totalitarianism, Military Dictatorship.
  • 12 major religions; over 4,000 recognized spiritual structures.
  • 195 countries.

The Spectrum of Identity & Experience

  • ~72 gender identities.
  • 136 narcotics, 4 alcohol types.
  • 143 skin tones, 12 hair types, 1200+ hair styles.
  • 6 experience categories: Physical, Mental, Emotional, Spiritual, Social, Virtual.
  • 47 types of human experience: Adulthood, Aesthetics, Aging, Belief, Birth, Change, Childhood, Community, Competition, Conflict, Constraint, Creativity, Culture, Destruction, Emotion, Empathy, Failure, Family, Fear, Freedom, Friendship, Happiness, Hate, Imagination, Joy, Learning, Logic, Mortality, Motivation, Nature, Physical, Play, Privacy, Problems, Rational thought, Rest, Self-fulfillment, Sense, Sickness, Society, Space, Spirituality, Spontaneity, Success, Time, Virtual experience, and Work.

The Uniqueness Protocol: Sailing Your Own Ocean These form the 16 different attributes that make you unique, the sailing of your own ocean, that proffers up your Zen in your dojo, or who acts like an A-lister in the movie of your life:

  • Genetics
  • Physical characteristics
  • Personality
  • Attitude
  • Perspective
  • Habits
  • Intellect
  • Goals
  • Experience
  • Relationships
  • Creativity
  • Passion
  • Communication
  • Humor
  • Taste
  • Travel

So… who are you?
You are a breathing paradox — a statistical inevitability laced with incalculable nuance. A sovereign archive of all you’ve seen, all you’ve felt, and all you’ve dared not say aloud. You are not a category or a checkbox. You are not your past, nor your scars, nor your ambitions alone. You are context in motion — shaped by billions of years of evolution and yet unfolding in real time as something utterly singular. You are the sum of stardust and stories, biology and belief, probability and poetry. And in the mirror’s quiet shimmer, when no one is watching, you are still becoming.

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