change

When I was about 17, three of my strongest beliefs were that;

a) Hip-hop would always be my favourite music,

b) I would never wear trousers that weren't baggy,

c) I would never grow my hair beyond half a centimetre.

So this morning, I stood in my bedroom thinking "was that really me?" as I tossed a pair of jeans into the bin that weren't tight enough, before going to my girlfriends mirror to effetely blow dry my hair. It also seems weird that my current tastes in styletwat indie music, and trousers that make me look like a barrel balanced on cocktail sticks will eventually cede to some other set of similarly stupid looks/interests.

Being as most people mellow, and become more interested in things that are less edgy/aggressive/hard-line as they get older, I'm pretty glad I started out being into the stupidly aggravational world of Hip-Hop. Regardless of the mindless idiocy, fake posturing, and often swaggeringly bad music of most of the genre, at least i can count myself lucky it will be a while before I reach the logically polar end of the spectrum and start liking the Lighthouse Family. If I had started out at 14 liking the music I'm into currently, who knows where i would be now? Probably eagerly awaiting the new Mr Hudson, or The Fray album. A scary thought.

All this thought of change was put into perspective as I read about the principle of constant renewal put forward by computer scientist Steve Grand. It goes something like this:

Think of a memory from your youth. Now consider that almost every single atom that was in your body at that moment, has by now been replaced by a new one. Our bodies are constantly renewing and rebuilding our bodies, and studies have shown that every year we replace 98% of our body mass.

We are mostly made up of water, so statistically there will be some water molecules that are the same, but its still a crazy thought. Now if I can just get the funding to show a direct correlation between this process and our constant march toward total mediocrity, I might be able to find a way to reverse the tide!