Would you be Friends with your Identical Clone?
NYT – Researchers in China reported on Wednesday that they have created two cloned monkeys, the first time that primates have been cloned with the technique that produced Dolly the sheep more than 20 years ago. The long-tailed macaques, named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, were made from fetal cells grown in a petri dish.
Alright, so big news out of CHI-NAAA , they seem to be exploring new ways to increase their population by cloning our primate brethren, an accomplishment the first of its kind. This is as much groundbreaking as it is terrifying. On the one side you have all the advanced medical treatments while on the other sits the Clone Lives Matter movement. This brings us to the age old question, would you want a clone of yourself? And would you be friends with your cloned self?
Right off the bat this is a simple Yes! One more of you, equals double the production! And naturally you’d just pawn off all the chores, family gatherings, work events to your trusty genetic copy. You could be left in peace with your Instagram account getting real work done, #CloneLife will be trending in no time. That is assuming your clone has the gene to “please” coded into their clone cells. Lets think about this for a moment:
From a genetic standpoint, your would be identical, now obviously your environment and influences are different but the hard code will be consistent. I’m not saying that my clone or your clone would be exactly like us in every way……..but I’m not saying they wouldn’t. Frankly, I’m not sure anybody’s qualified to say anything accurately on the matter at this point. I dislike mowing the lawn, I’d be going out on a pretty big limb to expect my clone to enjoy mowing the lawn. Also, what if your clone decides to hang out with the wrong clone crew, getting in all sorts of clone trouble during the wee hours of the night. That’s bad for business, their a literal reflection of you. Think arguing with a significant other or family member is emotionally depleting, try arguing with yourself…
So I’m gonna throw out the strict stance of “Mo Clones Mo Problems“, having identical copies of humans walking around is just gonna lead to an increased murder rate across the globe. We shouldn’t even be worrying about the possibility of clones while we have this Terminator preamble happening over at companies like Facebook, and this is only what was publicly disclosed. Hey, we can always use some extra help in the battles against the machines, or could it be a Human/Clone/Machine war. Anyway, no clone for me, I’m all set. Now if you excuse me I need to speak with JJ Abrams about a certain idea.
