Programmers can answer all existential questions with ease
this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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No more than identical twins are the same person.
Scientifically speaking, identical twins are clones, so yes, I agree
Isn't it illegal to clone humans or something?
To my knowledge, yes. The act of cloning is illegal, which means something like creating a clone artificially. The existence of clones isn't
Yeah. It tends to be difficult to make natural biological processes illegal.
Except with cloning the other twin would be a different age as with current tech the clone is back to being a baby. You'd need rapid growth tech and mind transfer tech to at least make the clone have the same age, memories and personality, although that would most likely introduce other differences.
Nothing more than bootstrapping the data for some integration testing
There is at least one case of parents, told at a very early stage that they're expecting twins, deciding to remove and freeze one of the embryos for later reimplantation, so even with actual identical twins, they can be different ages.
But yes, transferring minds is not something we can do. I'm not sure it's something we'll ever be able to do.
Should it actually become possible, I assume that certain parties would even advocate for the unique life/lives of the clone(s). The argument would be that the clones' chance at life shouldn't be overwritten by other being's attempts at extension of life.
"Ethical minefield" doesn't even begin to cover it!
So, less than an identical twin is the same person. The criterion above still holds.