X-Message-Number: 11184
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 22:59:50 -0700
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #11174

Thomas Donaldson notes more problems with the idea of creating
functioning duplicates of a person that would exist in the same world
as the original, so the two would also quickly diverge and become
separate individuals. I don't deny that someone would have problems
coexisting with their near-double who was already well-established
in their world, nor would I claim that one individual would "survive" in
or share consciousness with a near-double. (An absolutely perfect
double would be another matter of course.) I don't see much interest
in creating such near-doubles for a very long time. But as the hopefully
infinite future unfolds, inevitably (I think) there will be interest in doing
almost anything that is doable, much as we find today in many different
fields of endeavor. So someday I would expect
that such near-doubles will be produced, along with many other strange
and often wonderful things. Perhaps the near-double will start from a
person as that person was many centuries previously, not as it currently
is. Talk about a catch-up problem! After many *more* centuries,
however, the near-double will have developed into a distinct individual
in its own right, in ways that could be interesting and rewarding to its
creators, and will perhaps be able to find an honored place among
them.

Mike Perry

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