[ExI] Is a copy of you really you?

[SR Ballard]

To continue because I forgot to finish:

If the mother-copy is destroyed and two daughter-copies are created (such as in the amoeba), then neither are the original. That are twins, daughter-a and daughter-b. Twin rules still apply.

I think, as in traditional cloning, they should be seen as decedents, even though they are genetically identical. However, since they are not children (they are adults), they should get an inheritance. Mother-copy is dead and so property and goods must be split between daughter-copies and any “natural” (non-amoeba) children.

Neither daughter-copy is married, because mother copy was married, and daughter-copies share a twin relationship with mother-copy. Your twin doesn’t get to marry your wife when you die— your wife decides if she will marry them. 

Since you are a daughter-copy you also legally don’t have any children anymore, they are mother-copies children. Though I imagine the children might feel differently. 

You’re unemployed. It was your mother-copy who had the job. 

And so on.

SR Ballard

> On May 27, 2020, at 8:21 AM, SR Ballard <sen.otaku at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> My opinion is as follows:
> 
> The amoeba question is just the Ship of Theseus. It has whatever answer you would like it to have. The “daughter” amoebas are simultaneously the same as the “mother” amoeba without actually being the mother amoeba. 
> 
> If you were to copy yourself instantly with exactly duplicate memories, then you(a), as an agent would be unable to tell if it was you(a) or you(b) that was the mother-copy or the daughter-copy. Effectively, you(a) and you(b) are now just a normal set of twins.
> 
> From now on, any question about copies can be answered using the logic of twins.
> 
> If I (twin-a) am killed, do I continue to live on through them (twin-b)? No.
> 
> Assuming that the mother-copy is marked in some way, and we can know that twin-a is the mother-copy, then clearly twin-b has no claim to twin-a’s property, wife, children, etc just as in a normal twin relationship. 
> 
> However, because twin-a is here the mother-copy, they might be obliged to some kind of “parental duty” in the form of money or lodging to ensure twin-b can start off well in the world. 
> 
> The only way we could consider twin-a and twin-b to be one “you” (one coherent identity instead of twins) is if there was continuous bidirectional uploading. For example, you(a) and you(b) go about your daily experiences as normal. When you sleep your “consciousness file” is synced. After sleeping you will have some form of “shared” memory with your other self. That is the only way that “you” could exist in two bodies: if you were able to, in some way, share consciousness between the two.