Nothing is ever simple, is it? The previous post,
Identities, left out complexities in all three of the novels cited. In particular, another way to duplicate the consciousness of a person is simply to duplicate the person. If a living duplicate of an organism duplicates the organism's neural states, then it also duplicates that organism's mental states: not A thinking that he is B but two people thinking that they are A. See Poul Anderson's
"Symmetry" and the
magically generated duplicates called "ka's" in
The Anubis Gates where a duplicate Lord Byron has entertainment value - and might be based on reports of a double of Byron according to the quotation at the head of Chapter
8.
Of course, a time traveller can at least temporarily duplicate himself by coexisting with his younger or older self (see A Case In Point) or maybe by initiating a divergent timeline containing an alternative version of himself.
That is enough about that, I think.
5 comments:
We're the sum of our experiences. If you duplicated someone, any difference in what happened would open up a difference.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And I don't believe in that kind of artificial duplication of people. But I did think Anderson's story "Symmetry" quite interesting, a kind of locked room mystery. A man named Dunham got trapped inside an alien duplication device which copied hm so exactly both Dunhams had exactly the same thoughts, moved the same ways, made the same gestures, etc. The Dunhams had to figure out how to start acting differently.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
That mention of Lord Byron reminded me of William Gibson's THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE; set in a world drastically different from ours. Charles Babbage "difference engines" were fully developed and built, Byron survived the Greek War of Independence to become PM of the UK, leading a very different industrial revolution with different socio/political consequences, etc.
Ad astra! Sean
Well, some things are very simple. If someone's trying to kill you, for example!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That can certainly concentrate one's mind!
Ad astra! Sean
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