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sdjacaranda t1_ja6b1tj wrote

And if even one of those people were different you would be an entirely different person.

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pufballcat t1_ja71dsv wrote

Would you be entirely different, or probably just very slightly different?

I believe you don’t necessarily get DNA from every one of your ancestors, so if you’d had a different ancestor you could still be genetically identical, but I’m no expert

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BeeeeeepBooooop826 t1_ja7esp4 wrote

If one person was different then their child would be 50% different which would then cause their child to inherit different DNA and so on

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SapientRaccoon t1_ja6dk1a wrote

And you can extend that back to all the species that are also your direct abcestor right back to the first members of the animal kingdom.

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nachiketajoshi t1_ja6g03s wrote

True, the basic idea remains but please keep in mind that the number is not always straightforward exponential due to pedigree collapse.

"This paradox is explained by shared ancestors, referred to as pedigree collapse. Instead of consisting of all different individuals, a tree may have multiple places occupied by a single individual. This typically happens when the parents of an ancestor are related to each other (sometimes unbeknownst to themselves). For example, the offspring of two first cousins has at most only six great-grandparents instead of the usual eight. This reduction in the number of ancestors is pedigree collapse. It collapses the ancestor tree into a directed acyclic graph."

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czl t1_ja6hi8s wrote

Cellular DNA wise you get 50% half from each parent, quarter from each grand parent and so on. Lots of scope for your ancestors to be different and not at all affect you.

Inside your cells you also have mitochondria with their own DNA and those you get 100% from your mother and she 100% from hers and so on.

Lastly the 50% and 100% above are approximate since there are always a few of "errors" (yes "errors"!) that make you you.

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AssOfficer t1_ja7b4rr wrote

And if you're sterile, you are the only sterile person in all those millions.

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Showerthoughts_Mod t1_ja6awsg wrote

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