# Twin Minds? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 25, 2008, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twin-minds/434898 "2008-01-25T00:54:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TheVioletCreep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eb8c5e/32.png) [@TheVioletCreep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheVioletCreep)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twin-minds/434898/1 "2008-01-25T00:54:25Z")
I pose to you a question (whether it has been posted before, I haven’t the slightest, if so I apologise) Here it is. A woman has twins, each of these twins, from birth are a part of an experiment. Each twin will have different rooms at a research facility, same commodities, each room, exactly identical. Each child will be raised and taught by the same people, fed the same food (quantity, nutrition et al.) This goes on for years, when the both turn, lets say eighteen, they are each given a diary. Having been exposed to the exact same situation, would they in turn write the same thing as each other in their respective diaries? Discuss. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twin-minds/434898/2 "2008-01-25T00:58:02Z")
No, because it’s impossible to create conditions that are exact duplicates, and even if it were, the brains of the two twins will not be wired exactly the same - everyone gets a custom wire job as their brain develops. So, no. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twin-minds/434898/3 "2008-01-25T03:39:52Z")
No, because they both have free will. And please don’t ask for a cite. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twin-minds/434898/4 "2008-01-25T13:47:25Z")
They won’t behave identically, because they won’t develop identically. “Identical” twins are much more similar to each other than average siblings, but they aren’t copies down to the molecular level. There’s a lot of random influences at the microscopic level; development is kept within certain bounds, but development within those bounds is random; IIRC the technical term is canalized. They’d probably write similar kinds of things in their diaries, but the details would be different. [QUOTE=panache45] No, because they both have free will. And please don’t ask for a cite. [/QUOTE] Free will is a poorly defined concept that makes no sense when analysed, and doesn’t explain a thing. You might as well have said “because of God”. It’s an attempt to handwave away the need for an explanation, not an explanation. ---
**Author:** ![TheVioletCreep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eb8c5e/32.png) [@TheVioletCreep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheVioletCreep)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twin-minds/434898/5 "2008-01-26T02:49:37Z")
In short: I completely agree. It’s ignorant. (Der Trihs) I guess I see where you are all coming from on that level, I just thought the question posed something unique, perhaps I over think things? ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twin-minds/434898/6 "2008-01-26T06:06:43Z")
As father of twins, I have seen zero evidence of “twinning.” This may be because twin B suffered some hypoxic damage at birth that has impacted some of motor ability. But all the stuff I’ve ever read or heard about on twins and twinning doesn’t apply in our household. I suspect that twins in the OP’s world would be somewhat similar but that’s probably more due to being raised in an identical bubble world. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twin-minds/434898/7 "2008-01-26T06:47:31Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] Free will is a poorly defined concept that makes no sense when analysed, and doesn’t explain a thing. You might as well have said “because of God”. It’s an attempt to handwave away the need for an explanation, not an explanation. [/QUOTE] Well yes, I guess you \*\*\*had to \*\*\*say that. ---
**Author:** ![TheVioletCreep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eb8c5e/32.png) [@TheVioletCreep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheVioletCreep)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twin-minds/434898/8 "2008-01-27T05:40:10Z")
Yes, he did, THEY made him do it. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twin-minds/434898/9 "2008-01-28T00:11:41Z")
This question was answered adequately in the novel _Spock Must Die_. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twin-minds/434898/10 "2008-01-29T06:43:42Z")
Take it to the next level. If you were somehow able to make an _exact_ clone of yourself down to the molecular level, at this very moment. Then the two of you were lead into completely identical rooms and were forced to watch a movie you hadn’t seen before. Then the both of you are asked to write a review immediately after. How close would those two reviews read – even after only two hours of separated identical minds? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twin-minds/434898/11 "2008-01-29T15:49:26Z")
Pretty close, but probably not identical. A chaotic system like the human brain is very good at amplifying tiny perturbations, so I’d expect the two duplicates to begin diverging immediately. Therefore, I doubt you’d get a perfect word for word duplication. But they’d still have the same habits and memories, so I’d expect them to be extremely similar. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twin-minds/434898/12 "2008-01-29T15:58:05Z")
[QUOTE=panache45] Well yes, I guess you \*\*\*had to \*\*\*say that. [/QUOTE] Quite true. OTOH, you **chose** to say **that!** 🙂 Of course, your free choice was foreknown, therefore predetermined, from the dawn of time. Paging John Calvin! ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twin-minds/434898/13 "2008-01-29T16:12:36Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] Pretty close, but probably not identical. A chaotic system like the human brain is very good at amplifying tiny perturbations, so I’d expect the two duplicates to begin diverging immediately. Therefore, I doubt you’d get a perfect word for word duplication. But they’d still have the same habits and memories, so I’d expect them to be extremely similar. [/QUOTE] That’s exactly what I think. One might walk into the room and sit a little differently, scratch his ass, and divert his attention away from a bit of the film, and set his mind on a completely different train of thought. But even if everything else externally were the same, I agree that the brain is far too complex and chaotic, that while the review might be very similar, they wouldn’t be verbatim. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twin-minds/434898/14 "2008-01-29T16:43:37Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] Free will is a poorly defined concept that makes no sense when analysed, and doesn’t explain a thing. You might as well have said “because of God”. It’s an attempt to handwave away the need for an explanation, not an explanation. [/QUOTE] Good post. 🆒