Poll: Would you kill your clone?

[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...

 

[Eddie the head]

I'm not going to kill someone because it might make my life hard. I'm not a fucking psychopath. If he is exactly like me and we both "know" I'm the real one then I think he would be willing to let go of my life and move on.

 

[lordmardok]

Yeah, he do the same thing to me.

 

[ABLb0y]

Probably cut my pinkie off or something so people can tell us apart, then go play video games with him.

 

[The Funslinger]

I think I'd just wait till he's asleep, knock him out, and tatoo 'NOT ARJAN' (my real name) on his forehead. That way I can be assured of a distinction while I bide my time to figure out what to do with him.

But if he's you, then he'll probably think to do the same. Or possibly do it in spiteful retaliation.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

All things considered... no, not really. If my clone is a living, sentient being, then I don't think I could bring myself to murder her... though we'd have to get a few things straightened out, first. Also, how do I know that I'm not the clone and she's the real thing?

 

[Casual Shinji]

I think I'd just wait till he's asleep, knock him out, and tatoo 'NOT ARJAN' (my real name) on his forehead. That way I can be assured of a distinction while I bide my time to figure out what to do with him.

But if he's you, then he'll probably think to do the same. Or possibly do it in spiteful retaliation.

I'm approaching this with the assumption that he came from a lab somewhere, and so doesn't have a key to my house. However, if he's a clone that just emerges from the mirror, I'm probably gonna have to murder him. I'll shove those stupid glasses down his throat!

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

Yes. I wouldn't even feel conflicted about it. That asshole knows too much to be allowed to live.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

I'd make out with my clone just for the bragging rights. Then I'd feel sleazy and buy her dinner to atone for it.