The Self and Binary Fission

If the Self (the self that is distinct from the biological system) does not exist, if it is merely a man-made concept, an abstraction, it may come from the sense of the oneness of life and death in a biological system. We can talk of the Self, as the Self is one, the self was created, and may be annihilated, hence the one self has a beginning and an end. 

If this is the case, then the sense of self is merely incidental to our species, it is directly caused by human's method (or preferred method) of reproduction. We can stay one as we produce offspring that are genetically different and biologically independent. One can justify if a man says his offspring is not him, as it is biologically separate from the man and the man continue to be one after producing it. Therefore even after reproduction man's oneness is not disputed. He is one.

A man is created as a biological system at the point of conception. This creates the sense of beginning to the individual organism. With a definite beginning, not just continuous emergence, man can say that he starts as one, as that one has an exact starting temporal coordinate. 

 

And how does death contribute to the sense of Self? Death puts an end to a biological system. The biological system does not just slowly change into something entirely different (of course entirely is an exaggeration here), but it stops, also at a definite temporal coordinate.

A whole new picture will emerge if man, like a number of simple bacteria, reproduce by binary fission. He is no longer definitely one, or discrete, he is also eternal (may never actually die), maybe at this point calling him a he or even an it is no longer appropriate, as his oneness is vague, just as the number of clouds in the sky is vague. When the man reproduce by binary fission, he splits into two, both being equally him, and he or they continue to split indefinitely. He is not one, not anymore. Perhaps a dramatic visualization of this can be found in the movie "The Prestige",  can we still say that Angier is one after each of his show, how about his sense of Self? 

What about, the lack of proper conception, the lack of proper death, and evolution of this man, if he reproduce by binary fission. The lack of conception means his beginning may be pointed out in a certain coordinate since the emergence of life on earth, the primordial cell, to the emergence of his species, or even just when his 'parent' split. And evolution or rather random mutation will cause a whole new problem as the biological system is not exactly conserved, but it is conserved in some sense, the difference between the 'parent' and the man will only be as different as my right hand epidermal cell to my left hand epidermal cell. Because of this slow process of evolution, the beginning and the end of the Self can be pointed out, but we will need an arbitrary standard of the continuity of the Self. So will there be a self if man reproduce by binary fission?