Identity Change

The first problem in Aristotle's Metaphysics is that between change and identity. Many books on metaphysics consider the problem as such, that if I change one piece on my car and continue changing one piece until all the pieces are new, at what point was it a new car? For me, this is not what Aristotle meant by the problem, I think more about the notion of DNA, the idea that much of our life is determined by a chemical process that never changes. All change to our body and mind is dictated by our DNA that does not change from the moment of conception to the moment of death.

The problem being that DNA is an internal system, it means we are human and could not be anything else, we are all tied to our species, even if evolution allows small changes. Outside the power of the DNA is the power of environment, external may not effect our appearance greatly, although there are many parts of it e can change, it does effect our personalities. Identity says nothing about our potential, when I think of the worse person I can be, and because of my illness I have at times been that person and I think of the best, most ideal, person I can be, I like to think I am in the process of realizing my potential, there is a huge split in the potential, this I call the split potential. We all walk around everyday with the split potential looming over our heads, mostly and I'm sad to say, people believe they would be a better person if they had more money. But this is the split, can I do better versus how do I stop this getting worse?

Most people settle, they earn enough money, they have a big enough house, drive a fast enough car and have a pretty enough wife. So is this their identity, it has absolutely nothing to do with their DNA. There are those whose choices have a massive impact on peoples lives and those who cannot get a job, any link to their DNA is of little matter and cause. It seems to me we all have the power to improve our lives, how and why we do seems more to the power of the mind rather than the reasons of the body.