Doppelganger

September 22nd, 2023

„On the underground now going to work, check the photo I just sent you, WTF?”

My brother sent me this message from London a couple of days ago. I looked at the photo in the message and my jaw hit the floor. In the photo taken on a random day at a random location in London in a random car in the underground — there was me. Or a guy who looked just like me. And that wasn’t just a surface-like similarity — the only visible difference was the nose. The guy on the underground in London had a normal nose, while I have a huge one. Other than that, there was nothing else to differentiate between us — the same exact facial features and body build, a pitiful lack of hair on both heads, the same style of glasses, an unusual grey beard we both have, a t-shirt of the kind I would wear, shorts in the style I already wear, New Balances on feet which are my go-to everyday shoes, a smart band on both wrists, the same style backpack I have and he was reading a book, which I do as well on any longer commute.

In a nutshell — the same-looking guy as me. To be sure, the photo was sent to several other people to make certain we are not just seeing and imagining things. And the responses from everywhere were the same — the resemblance is uncanny and unexplainable. Our looks (as in human beings) are based on many factors, but the mainframe on which we can improve or worsen our looks is encoded in our genes. And that should make everyone unique. Even looking at the spread of genes, it would be a real stretch to look for any connectivity between the UK and Poland where the same set of genes would bring forth two individuals. So those genes evolved and survived countless generations and mutations to produce two same-looking guys in widely separated parts of the world. And what is more — two same-looking guys with the same sense of style and that cannot be explained by genetics. Just something nice and pleasant to ponder on Friday before the weekend.