Is there a limit to the amount of human faces? How?

Yes, there must be a limit. First, assume that there is a finite amount of matter in the world. If there is a finite amount of matter, then there is also a finite (even if vastly large) number of ways in which it can be arranged. Thus there is necessarily a finite number of possible anythings. Not all possible arrangements of matter will count as a human face, however, so an even smaller finite number will express the limit of how many human faces there can be.

But what if there is not a finite amount of matter? In that case, it will still be the case that only certain arrangements will count as a human face. Nothing too large will count, and neither will something too small. It is the former point that matters to us, though: if there is an upper limit on the size a human face, then there is an upper limit on the amount of matter that there can be in a human face. Thus we are left with the solution given in the previous paragraph: given that there is a finite limit on the amount of matter that can be in a human face, there is a finite number of ways in which it can be arranged and an even smaller finite number of ways it can be arranged that will count as a human face.

Conclusion: regardless of whether there is a finite or infinite amount of matter in the world, there is a finite limit to the number of human faces possible.

This is where the old ” everyone has a double” phrase came from.
I have seen several people that looked amazingly similar to myself, including a few celebrity females and my daughters boyfriend is the spitting image of Cris Rock, only half white, half Philipino (sp?) lol
We are all snowflakes, no perfect carbon copies, but close, dame close, for many.

Technically if there was we would never, ever, ever reach it.

Conclusion: regardless of whether there is a finite or infinite amount of matter in the world, there is a finite limit to the number of human faces possible.

@SavoirFaire if so can we get a number? And if the possibility exceeds the population does that mean that at one point I have a identical double somewhere in the globe?

@Wonder29 If you believe in the theory of a multiverse – yes.

To get a number you’d have to define your terms. Things like

> How big of a difference makes a face unique for your count? A millimeter? One cell different? Smaller?

> Is there a human element? For example are faces we can’t tell the difference between counted the same? Does a human have to recognize the face as another human being?

> Once you make those choices you’d have to define ranges that represent a face. Distance between the eyes, how far does your nose protrude, acceptable dimensions, etc.

Until you put some constraints on the question there isn’t a way to find a number.

@Wonder29 I’m not sure that I could give you a number, only a proof that there must be some such number. We would still have to figure out what counts as a distinct nose, for instance. Presumably, differences that are unable to be perceived by the naked eye wouldn’t count. As for the possibility of you having a face-double somewhere, it’s not actually all that unlikely. People report finding doppelgängers all the time. I can’t tell you where to find your double, though. Perhaps try the places where your ancestors lived. People with related genotypes are the most likely candidates.

Suppose we simplified the problem. Using pen and ink, how many different types of cartoonized faces are there? How well could an artist distinguish two people whose appearances are fairly close? I suggest this because the cartoonist has only a relatively small number of lines to work with. Cartoon artists are not given the same respect as portrait artists, but it seems to me that because of the limited means at their disposal, they have a good sense of what it is that distinguishes one face from another. I admire their ability to evoke celebrities with just a few lines.

.I have always wondered if there are a set of ratios that could be used to construct a fairly good approximation to a given face.

Is there a limit to the number of fingerprints? No. Same concept. Is there any way to prove this – doubtful. But even if 100 people had my face, we could all weigh a different amount, making one chubbier than the next. I think there are too many variables to ever get a realistic number.

A photograph which looked just like me when I was 19 came across my desk. The girl was taller than I, but the face was my face. And she hadn’t even asked permission to use it.
How often have you greeted someone and then realized it wasn’t the person you thought it was? Or told, “Oh you look exactly like someone I know.” Despite a lot of factors, there are going to be faces that appear to be identical. I don’t know if there is a finite number of possibilities You could start counting, I suppose.

How often have you greeted someone and then realized it wasn’t the person you thought it was? Or told, “Oh you look exactly like someone I know.”

@Sunny2 but in the end you realize you have mistaken, I wanna know if there’s sucha thing as me bumping into someone thinking it was someone I know and i shouldn’t even realize that I’ve mistaken…

@funkdaddy I’m talking about what a human can recognize, of course if you count every millimeter a difference then there’s nowhere to start

Your question reminds me about the old photo of a look-a-like to Nicholas Cage from 1870. I believe you will get similarities but never the same since everyone’s geens are different in one way or the other.
Check out this site for more look-a-likes it’s really something!

A face can be displayed as an arrangement of pixels and so the number is finite but there is another way of looking at this. A face is full of meaning and can have a different meaning depending on who is looking at it whether it is a father, a son, a wife, a boss, an employee or a friend. Each of these people will see a different face in those pixels, a face that changes from day to day and so the number of faces tends towards the infinite.