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[JoshuaFH]

I'm sure everyone knows the nature and nurture debate, where it's argued that it's someones DNA or it's their life experiences that carve someone into the person they are.

I got to thinking, what if we placed two identical cloned babies into an artificial world (truman show style) with similarly identical parents (which are professional actors) to raise them. We have the parents treat the child and spring important things on them in different ways and in different times of their lives, and see how they end up, and then compare the clones to eachother, and then compare them both to the original (whomever they were cloned from).

Does anyone think that my idea holds any water if it were feasible?

[Strife26]

It'd work, but you have the problem of maintaining a controled enviroment. Plus the ethicality of it.

Personally, I think that building a perfect VR world work better.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

My psychology professor said Nature Vs. Nurture is a crock o' schite.  Well actually he said it's not one of the other it's both.  Just ya'know, throwing the comments of a specialist in the field out there, in case anyone cares.

[Gunner-Chan]

It would be good experiment if it were at all possible, but there would be so many things keeping the test on paper even if it were possible to conduct it. For one two subjects is not enough for a test to be at all accurate, and secondly it would take an incredible amount of manpower to pull off.

[webadict]

Look at twin studies. There's plenty of information about this.

[Armok]

It'd be a very dwarven thing to do.

[umiman]

This is a very popular concept.

In simple terms, I think there's plenty of evidence pointing to you getting two different people who look the same.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

With twin studies they often find that the subjects will exhibit certain uncanny similarities, despite their many differences.

[umiman]

The question is whether by a person would be the same if he had grown up in different circumstances. Even if they exhibit "uncanny similarities", it's so easy to not notice the fact that they exhibit a heck of a lot more "uncanny differences."

Thus, two different people who look the same.

We can do this on a matter of probabilities as well. Taking the "Truman Show Duplicate" thought experiment, suppose every single choice those guys had to make could be represented in simple "Yes / no" function.

So, you'd have an immeasurably large pyramid of yes and nos. A 50% probably for every choice he can ever make since conception.

The definition of "the same person" would basically mean Truman A = Truman B. Thus, it would be obvious that if either Truman made a choice that's not the same as the other Truman, he would immediately not be the same person by definition. Of course, in practical terms, it would probably take more than one minor choice to affect personality, but this is difficult to model though the analysis can still stand.

All it boils down to is whether you believe that with a 50% probability for each choice and an infinite number of choices, even though both lead the exact same lives in every single way, they will choose the exact same choices each and every single time.

I would believe they wouldn't, but maybe they would.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

The question is whether by a person would be the same if he had grown up in different circumstances. Even if they exhibit "uncanny similarities", it's so easy to not notice the fact that they exhibit a heck of a lot more "uncanny differences."

Thus, two different people who look the same.

We can do this on a matter of probabilities as well. Taking the "Truman Show Duplicate" thought experiment, suppose every single choice those guys had to make could be represented in simple "Yes / no" function.

So, you'd have an immeasurably large pyramid of yes and nos. A 50% probably for every choice he can ever make since conception.

The definition of "the same person" would basically mean Truman A = Truman B. Thus, it would be obvious that if either Truman made a choice that's not the same as the other Truman, he would immediately not be the same person by definition. Of course, in practical terms, it would probably take more than one minor choice to affect personality, but this is difficult to model though the analysis can still stand.

All it boils down to is whether you believe that with a 50% probability for each choice and an infinite number of choices, even though both lead the exact same lives in every single way, they will choose the exact same choices each and every single time.

I would believe they wouldn't, but maybe they would.

Twin studies show that twins who grew up in different environments end up very different, but also have some uncanny similarities.

[Yanlin]

Translation from science speak: Twin studies have yielded no results.

Uncanny similarities are not good enough against massive difference.

If you want my opinion, both have an effect. Why is it always Vs? Can't we all get along? Nature AND Nurture?

[JoshuaFH]

NEVER, nature and nurture must fight to the death! Only then will I be happy.

[Fenrir]

Isn't nature a product of the previous generations' nurture? I remember reading something about epi... eper... Epic Gnomes or something that are affected by the environment then passed to the offspring. I'd Google it, but I get the feeling that "Epic Gnomes" would not turn up useful results.

[Yanlin]

Nature is indeed a product of previous generations. The cities we live in now are technically part of nature. They ARE nature.

As the saying goes though, we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.

[Nilocy]

Well, the whole nature vs. nurture thing is going to be extremely hard to prove either way. The testing methods would be way to un-ethical to allow any sort of proper empirical evidence. You can only look at case studies at the best.

Personally I think its just an undefined mix of both. Gene dictate what your bodies going to be predisposed to, certain genes make you more likely to become fat, or depressed, or wear glasses.
 While the Nurture side will generally define what your going to become when your older. The child is the father of the man. The way your brought up will effect how you interact with people and all.

A great example is twins, nearly the exact same genes, 99.9%, but they never grow up to be mentally the same, they have different quirks and all don't they?