Poll: Would you kill your clone?

[Smiley Face]

I absolutely wouldn't kill my clone! I mean, assuming he passes all the requisite checks. I don't really trust or open up to people, but not really an issue with an experience clone, I'm sure we'd become fast friends. That or it'd just be too weird and we'd establish two different lives to avoid that, but kill my clone? Sheesh, besides ethical issues about murder, self-murder making it even more messed up, it's just not necessary with me. I prefer diplomacy first, argument second, and violence almost never, and only against people who deserve it.

Granted, I don't have kids or a significant other, but if I did, we either wouldn't disclose the clone thing or we'd claim that we didn't know which, if either of us, was the original, just to avoid that creating problems or anyone feeling left out - my clone or I wouldn't have much of an issue sharing a life, or establishing a second life for the clone, either to be separate or shared between us. We'd work things out, rather than it turning into a you/me vs. you/me sort of thing.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Does he want my life? And my girlfriend? Then I'd probably try to kill him.

Most likely, since you'd be willing to kill him over it he'd have a similar level of attachment to both.

Are you kidding? Why is killing it the first thing that comes to mind? And so what if it has all of my memories and goals? My goals require me working with other people; having another Ron around would help that a bit. Furthermore, the issue of who was the "original" seems to be a matter of semantics, really; maybe each of us would get a distinctive tattoo so that we can be differentiated.

This isn't difficult. Why would you have to murder someone to solve it?

Just how easy it is seems to depend a lot on where you are in life. I doubt I'd do it at this point in my life, but that's because I haven't really built much in my life yet besides education (something we'd both share equally). Would it be a more difficult situation for you if you were married, had kids, a career you'd invested in (one that wouldn't suddenly take on a clone of you as well), a home, and enough money to support your family, but not enough to set up someone else's life on top of it?

How do you divide that? One of you gets the money, the other gets the family? I don't imagine that would go over well with your family since it's their money too. In that kind of situation you're pretty much guaranteed for someone to come out of it with having lost almost everything. Your clone wouldn't be accepting of anything you wouldn't be, so could you be convinced to leave your home, family and most of your life earnings?

It's really hard to say, but honestly I don't think I could, or would want to live with that. As a result my clone wouldn't either. Losing it through circumstances (say divorce, fire, an accident or whatever) is something I feel like you can accept easier, it's something that's out of your hands, and while horrible, there's nothing you can do about it. This way you need to consciously walk away from them. They will always be there, and there will always be a you living happily with them. It just won't be you.

Or maybe you don't drop it all, and take shifts being the husband? I can't imagine that being preferable to anyone in the relationship though.

I suppose the other alternative is divorce and estranging yourself from your family so both of you start off with the same situation. No one is any worse off than the other.

Regardless of whether or not it would come to killing each other, I would definitely consider that to be a difficult situation.

I'm starting to see a little missed potential with this thread though, I should have made two changes:

1. Added a second question for whether your answer would change if you had a family, career and home.

2. Added an option on in the poll for "Too busy having sex"

 

[thiosk]

Of course not! Not right then, anyway. It would be all about organ and stemcell harvesting.

 

[Auron225]

Well, I'm not a violent person so I imagine my clone wouldn't be either. Therefore murder will be the last thing on his mind... and so...

 

[Daverson]

A wise man once said, when faced with your duplicate you can either fuck or fight. I'm... not a particularly attractive man, so I'm going to have to go with the latter.

 

[Kaymish]

its a real toss up i have a ready made ally in all my plots i can be in two places at once and a diversion should someone want to assassinate me but on the other hand its someone i will have to be wary of some one i will have to share what i have with who is as smart and as strong as me as uncaring and ruthless and who is also willing to do what needs to be done so i am unsure i would want to kill her and i know she knows this and will be thinking about rubbing me out so i will have to act first and uncompromisingly dispose of the threat

 

[Tsun Tzu]

Question:

Is my clone actively trying to kill me?

If not...no.

If yes...yes, and fuck that guy, he sucks.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Oh, I'd do a lot more than kill him.

I'd stalk him mercilessely. Every day, he'd notice me. I wouldn't be noticed by anyone else but him. I would be like his shadow, he couldn't go someplace without me trailing behind the bastard. Just when he's settled into my life, or at least what was my life, I'll be gone. Without me, it'll feel wrong for him.

Then I'll wring his neck and feed him to the pandas at the local zoo.

No poor person on this Earth deserves having to put up with two of me.

 

[Zen Bard]

Oh yes. Absolutely.

This world isn't big enough for the two of us.

Plus it'd only be a matter of time before Fake Me decided to murder me and assume my identity to give its life some semblance of meaning.

So it's either him or me.

I mean come on, we've all read/see enough stories with this plot.

We know how they end.

 

[Bellvedere]

Nah, it would be pretty handy having another me. We could both work on Uni my assignments. I'd pretend whoever the cloned one of us was showed up after I finished my degree. We'd both have time to do more part time hours (I honestly wouldn't care which one of us had to get the new job - plus we could swap whenever we felt like it) so more money for both of us - MEANING MORE ACTION FIGURES!!!

My boyfriend said he'd be cool dating both of us and I can't imagine my dog would have a problem having another person around to give him cuddles. Oh! and I could finally get some pictures of me and my dog together. I could go on holidays without feeling bad about leaving my dog but also stay with my dog without feeling bad about choosing to stay with him instead of going on holidays. AND whenever people have conversations with me and I'm not listening because I'm focused on something else and they bring it up I could pretend they said it to my clone THEN give my clone the heads up and no more getting accused of being unreliable!

Having another me would be totally awesome.

 

[Senare]

My philosophy of human worth is already based on a thought experiments where all of you are potential versions of me. To say that I would kill my clone begs the question if I would find it acceptable to kill anyone else of you. Suffice to say, neither I nor me would be very interested in killing us.

Furthermore: why would human rights just magically evaporate with the existence of a clone? Relationship issues could prove difficult, but I think that would mostly because this is an unusual scenario. But me not being monogamous may make it easier as well.

 

[Total LOLige]

Spoiler: Seems like a good thread for this song

I wouldn't kill him. I'd let him take over my life for a bit. I've become increasingly lazy lately, I could leave him to do the shit I can't be arsed doing. I think I'd grow a beard and not cut my hair ever again, I'd mooch off my clone.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

Hell no! I need a video games coop partner with the same mindset as me.
We can also split up the work, one works for 3 days a week, or work on different projects. Nifty!

 

[Padwolf]

Of course I would kill my clone. Knowing me the way I do my clone is probably out to steal my life and boyfriend. I can't let that happen. Besides the universe can't handle that amount of godliness on one planet. While I see the uses of it, meh, it must die!

 

[Chaud]

First issue here is to understand that, technically speaking, it may not be ideal to call that person "my clone", since essentially it would be more of a "duplicate". He is I, in every possible sense of the word, even though, technically, he was "created" after me. As I consider that a human being is basically it's mind and experiences, then we are indistinguishable as individuals according to this premise.

If he is me, then, I 'm sure he would not kill a human being, except in a situation of self-defense. That, of course, is my case also. So, no, I would not kill him and he certainly would not kill me.

For the rest of the questions, well, I have no particular attachment to my "lifestyle". Certainly, in this world, there is room for two people "like me". Initially it would be somewhat complicated, I imagine. What would we do with the work? Maybe split the income and working periods (each one going for a day) until one of us could find another. And I would not mind being the one searching, which tells me that he certainly would not mind also.

Same thing about my name. If necessary, I even let my "clone" with my original name, changing to a new one. It would be quite interesting thing to do, really, kinda starting a "new life". What makes me think that the situation would be exotic because undoubtedly he would think the same. But for practical purposes, at least one of us would have to change the name and the other should keep it. I dunno how to solve this since no doubt both would have the same opinion. Possibly it would be by lottery.

I'm not married nor have children, but being honest, I never really had an "emotional attachment" as strong to a person that made me want either of these things. (And as I have reasonably more than thirty years of age... I guess that will not change at this point.) So, good, I have not much to lose here, and I cannot imagine what would happen if it was the case since, well, I don't really want that in my life.

It seems to me that this situation isn't as dire as you make it sound, honestly. It would be a great inconvenience, undoubtedly, because of all the things we would need to solve. But I think I would rather sympathize with him, after all, he is myself. I know what he thinks and how feels things, therefore, I cannot 'not' like him, and I don't know how to ignore what he thinks about. I literally and completely understand him, also. Most likely, it would be the most honest and sincere relationship between two people in the world. I think we would be great friends, that's the truth.

Therefore, I believe we would find a way to reconcile and follow our own lives.

 

[Alcom1]

I like me, and every endeavor I go through could benefit from double the man power so... BRING ON THE CLONES!

Just... one though. I don't want to have my individuality diluted by the resulting crowd of mes.

 

[Leemaster777]

Whoops, accidentally voted yes when I meant no.

I wouldn't kill my clone, no way. He's me... and I like me.

 

[Azure Knight-Zeo]

Of course I'd kill him, this is the only reason I'd clone myself.

 

[Bro McDuderstine]

If the clone has all your memories (and by extension personality), and you pick the kill option, you know that clone is thinking the exact same thing.

 

[Ikasury]

Does he want my life? And my girlfriend? Then I'd probably try to kill him.

Most likely, since you'd be willing to kill him over it he'd have a similar level of attachment to both.

Are you kidding? Why is killing it the first thing that comes to mind? And so what if it has all of my memories and goals? My goals require me working with other people; having another Ron around would help that a bit. Furthermore, the issue of who was the "original" seems to be a matter of semantics, really; maybe each of us would get a distinctive tattoo so that we can be differentiated.

This isn't difficult. Why would you have to murder someone to solve it?

Just how easy it is seems to depend a lot on where you are in life. I doubt I'd do it at this point in my life, but that's because I haven't really built much in my life yet besides education (something we'd both share equally). Would it be a more difficult situation for you if you were married, had kids, a career you'd invested in (one that wouldn't suddenly take on a clone of you as well), a home, and enough money to support your family, but not enough to set up someone else's life on top of it?

How do you divide that? One of you gets the money, the other gets the family? I don't imagine that would go over well with your family since it's their money too. In that kind of situation you're pretty much guaranteed for someone to come out of it with having lost almost everything. Your clone wouldn't be accepting of anything you wouldn't be, so could you be convinced to leave your home, family and most of your life earnings?

It's really hard to say, but honestly I don't think I could, or would want to live with that. As a result my clone wouldn't either. Losing it through circumstances (say divorce, fire, an accident or whatever) is something I feel like you can accept easier, it's something that's out of your hands, and while horrible, there's nothing you can do about it. This way you need to consciously walk away from them. They will always be there, and there will always be a you living happily with them. It just won't be you.

Or maybe you don't drop it all, and take shifts being the husband? I can't imagine that being preferable to anyone in the relationship though.

I suppose the other alternative is divorce and estranging yourself from your family so both of you start off with the same situation. No one is any worse off than the other.

Regardless of whether or not it would come to killing each other, I would definitely consider that to be a difficult situation.

I'm starting to see a little missed potential with this thread though, I should have made two changes:

1. Added a second question for whether your answer would change if you had a family, career and home.

2. Added an option on in the poll for "Too busy having sex"

i think a lot of people are missing or willfully ignoring the point of 'you are both the same' and only sticking to the snarky-internet-response of 'sex with them' or the overly blunt moralism of 'will not kill because reasons'...

this is someone created by whatever-insert-scifi-means that up until the point of creation you and it are EXACTLY the same, they will act according to how your life has defined you and do so, they are just as much the 'real one' in their point of view as you are...

people seem to forget humans are vicious savage territorial creatures, if we can get away with it we will, i don't believe anyone that says 'why would i kill someone?' as some succint excuse to remain the moral one... we are animals, we have instincts to mark, claim, and kill to protect that claim... someone, an 'other' that is completely identical to us that believes they ARE us as much as i do... violence and primal instinctive urges are inevitable... many a philosopher has pretty much already stated the natural state of humans is wanting to kill each other simply because anyone besides 'me', as in the conscious 'me' that i am now, will at some point try to control me, therefore to prevent that, i must kill them... this clone-issue is just an extension of that, i cannot control them that is me, therefore to ensure my life is mine, i must kill them...

as someone that is married, as you seem actually interested in people taking this seriously with actual value put in, yes, there is a difference... children and spouses go back to that 'claim' bit of our instinct, if someone else, another me or not, tries to claim my husband... that's reason enough for me to brutally end them... in fact it is my connection to him that i value more then most things in life that preserving it would be reason enough for me to kill in the first place... this 'other' would know and think this too, thus a bloody war between us is on the horizon... how this plays out and how it ends would further define us as separate beings, one the victor, one the scorned... this would likely cause a lot of animosity and result in further conflict until one of us is dead or submits... more then likely dead...

now, as a reverse, if i weren't married attatched to someone would this change? yes... without such vital connections there would be no reason for either of us to fight, thus no reason for us to not linger and cooperate together on doing other less trivial things... this would allow for growth as seperate entities without defined loses right off the bat... they might find someone and i wouldn't care, i'd find someone and they wouldn't care, we would have no reason to tread into each other's territory until there is something either of us wants that the other precievably has... then war and chaos...

hope that goes more into your questions then some of these other answers...