Which aspects do you think makes a person unique?

Rather than make a list of all the features of a person which makes then unique – personality, values, beliefs, cultural background, family upbringing and so on – let’s approach this question with a basic observation. One way we can see what makes an individual unique is their interactions with other individuals. Our uniqueness is manifested when we interact with our fellow individuals.

We each have a brain, but possessing a brain is not enough to make a mind. Minds emerge as we learn how to interact with others around us.

The question above takes on renewed importance in this day and age of artificial intelligence. Does ChatGPT truly reflect human intelligence or sentience? Can we reproduce what makes us human in the form of computer intelligence? Is there a ghost in the machine? I deliberately use the phrase ‘ghost in the machine’, because that harks back to similar debates in the 19th century about what makes us human.

Machines, along with widespread industrialisation, were a growing feature of capitalist society. The new technologies – the steam engine, the electrical cable, the railway – were revolutionising society. How did humans adapt to this changing socioeconomic structure? Along came telephones, tape recorders and Morse code. Electric communication was impacting our worlds; now we could communicate with geographically distant communities. Was this fundamentally changing our humanity?

In the 19th century, similarly to today, scientific discoveries are making us more aware of humanity’s interconnection with and dependence upon the natural world. No longer were humans the pinnacle on a ladder of creation, according to biblical cosmology. Humans were a product of natural forces, one twig on an ever-growing branching network of hominin species. Most scientists in the 1800s, such as Swiss American scientist Louis Agassiz, were staunch creationists and sought to preserve the theologically based uniqueness of humankind.

Agassiz was also a notorious racist, which besmirched his legacy.

If humans are connected with the natural ecology, does that diminish or emphasise our uniqueness? The environmental movement, which started in the 19th century, pointed out that our wellbeing is dependent on a healthy natural environment. Animals are sentient beings, capable of experiencing pleasure and pain. So perhaps human sentience is not so unique after all, just a more developed feature that we possess on a human-animal continuum.

I understand the importance of upbringing and cultural background when evaluating a person’s uniqueness. Being from an ethnic minority inevitably impacts your personality and life experiences. Years ago, when I was about 16, I was walking around Cronulla, a beachside southern suburb of Sydney. It is easy to get there by train.

A complete stranger, passing by, yelled at me ‘piss off to Brighton’. I smiled my best fake smile, and kept walking, I had absolutely no idea why this stranger yelled at me to get out of Cronulla. Brighton is a bit further north of Cronulla, another beachside suburb. Why would I go there?

Half an hour later, a possible explanation dawned on me. Cronulla is the beach for the white Australians, whereas Brighton is the place for wogs like me – any Greek, Maltese, Hungarian, Lebanese, or Armenian like myself – should immediately relocate.

It was a valuable lesson. Not only about racism, however important that is. There was another lesson here. It is crucial to I observe the way individuals interact with each other. Their personal uniqueness, whether good or obnoxious, comes out when they socially interact with each other.

I am always exceedingly polite to waiters, baristas, cooks, cleaners, retail staff – they are not my servants, they are people doing a job. They have bills to pay, worry about their kids, all the while dealing with the public. If I see that you are courteous to me, but rude to the waiter, it makes me think, what if I was in the same position as the waiter?

No, I do not immediately break off the friendship, but it is an observation I keep with me. It indicates to me the kind of person you are, and the level of emotional intelligence you have, or do not have. It is in our interactions with others that our uniqueness shines through.

I do not want to turn this article into a thoroughgoing sociopolitical analysis of the current US-Iran conflict. This article would then become unwieldy and divert from the purpose of the original question. However, I would like to make one comparison here, which will help us answer the above question.

US Secretary of Defence Peter Hegseth (who likes to call himself the secretary of war) has made numerous blood-curdling statements about eliminating Iranians, showing no mercy, annihilating his Iranian enemies, and so on. Perhaps this overzealous bravado can be excused as just macho posturing in a time of war.

Consider the following: Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, has repeatedly stated that Tehran does not wish to harm American civilians, who have expressed their overwhelming opposition to the war instigated by the Trump administration. He specified that his nation’s quarrel is with the US military complex, and its political leadership. Hardly the statement of a sadistic, psychopathic killer.

In 2011, when Araghchi was Iran’s ambassador to Japan, he demonstrated his uniqueness by rolling up his sleeves and distributed aid to those affected by that nation’s earthquake. He could have simply ignored that event, or chosen to leave Japan in its hour of need. Yet he chose to stay and help those who suffered. He noted that Japan stepped up and helped Iran in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 Bam earthquake.

Our uniqueness emerges by interacting with others. It is by mixing with people that we realise our true selves.