IS it impossible to duplicate ourselves?: Philosophy Forums

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IS it impossible to duplicate ourselves?

shaheen
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Posted 11/03/09 - 07:39 PM:	#11
Even if it WAS possible, the clone would have a different personality entirely. We are our memories and experiences. So even if I were to say, clone Hitler, we would not have another tyrant, but an average person, because the clone did not go through the expiriences Hitler did.
Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand. Karl Marx

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Posted 11/07/09 - 09:04 AM:	#12
jsidelko wrote: <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> Is it impossible to duplicate ourselves? Even if we accept that it is technologically possible to replicate ourselves, I propose that it is physically impossible to create an exact copy. The barrier to such an achievement is the quantum foam at the Planck distance. As a result of the uncertainty at this level with virtual particles randomly popping in and out of existence, we would never achieve precision beyond this boundary. Because of the slight differences resulting from such uncertainty, the end product would deviate widely because of nonlinear effects. Consequently, we would only be able to replicate rough grained copies of ourselves. Perhaps so - but such copies COULD be good enough to be epistemically indistinguishable from the original - and surely this is all that counts? If I have two objects, one an original and one a copy, and I have no way of telling the difference between the two, then it matters not one iota whether they are perfect copies or just "rough grained" copies as you describe - they are indistinguishable.
crumpled bits of paper, filled with imperfect thoughts... we all talk a different language, talking in defence... and if you don't give up, and don't give in, you may just be ok... (Mike & The Mechanics, "The Living Years")

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