Killing yourself.

Not literally, before anyone wonders if I've become suicidal.

Saw a movie last night called The Prestige. Don't know if anyone's seen/heard of it. Basically, it's about a couple of magicians who aren't too happy with each other, in the time of Edison. There's one bit that's a bit strange - one of the magicians goes to Tesla (Edison's opponent, who favours AC current) to make a machine for him, for a specific trick called "The Transported Man". Sounds like it is. Flash, bang, magician goes from A to B in an instant. Except this machine didn't do that; it actually replicated what was at A, and placed it at B. So you had object X at both A and B, identical. And so, of course, when magician stepped into it, there were two magicians. So he shot himself. And when he did the trick onstage, he actually had a trapdoor under point A going into a locked water tank, to drown the extra one. Killing himself each time he did the trick.

My question is this: how much do you have to change, before you are no longer you? Or are you always you? The magician was replicated perfectly each time; but each time, it was the copy that lived on. And so by the end, you had a copy of a copy of a copy..........of a copy, etc, etc. So was that person you ended up with really the same one you had at the beginning?

There's a test called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI. It's one of the more well-known and -used ones around. It works pretty simply; there are four axis's, each of which has two opposites. So you're either closer to one or the other. They are Introversion - Extraversion, Intuition - Sensing, Feeling - Thinking, and Judging - Perceiving. And I haven't randomly bolded the n rather than the I in Intuition - they thought we can't have two Is in a row, so just do that instead. :P Basically, whichever you're closer to, you get that letter. So if you get Extraversion, Sensing, Feeling, and Judging, you'd be an ESFJ.

Now, I've done this test a fair bit, but recently, I hadn't done it for a while. And I'd always gotten very Introverted, very Intuition, split right down the middle on Thinking/Feeling, and very Perceiving. I did it just the other day, and I got some different results. I got reasonably Introverted, still very Intuition, very Feeling, and only just Perceiving. And then when I did the multiple intelligences test, Intrapersonal - which has always been my very top - is now at number 5! Interpersonal is still the last, but it's getting a lot better.

And it made me wonder. Is this still me? Or am I someone else now? Would the me of a few years ago recognise this one? Have I even managed to kill myself, like the magician? It's a difficult question, and I probably won't figure out the question today. Whatever it is, though, I'm glad I've changed, even if it's just a bit.