Excellent points. I hadn’t given much thought to the psychological vs external sameness of selfhood.
One is naturally lead to wonder about how such dilemma would be dealt with in legal proceedings. Your assertion about the lack of an external objective criteria for the sameness of selfhood implies that if Eva1 committed a crime then we cannot reasonably convict Eva2 for it.
As Seth justly states, immediately after the cloning, all the Eva’s become different persons because they acquire different experiences. They do share a common history but they will soon start telling different stories about this history just as different people do.
Yes, legal identity is an even bigger can of worms. Even in some cases in the real world, you can already lose your continuity of “legal identity” in some corner cases. Being able to duplicate people would just make it even messier.
Do duplicates “inherit” into some sort of joint ownership of property? Is the property divided like inheritance? Are they new people entirely with no claims on property at all? What about citizenship? If Eva0 committed a crime, should we hold both Eva1 and Eva2 responsible for it? If after duplication Eva2 committed a crime that strongly benefits Eva1, but killed herself before conviction, can the prosecution go after Eva1? Do they need to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the intent was in the mind of Eva0 before duplication?
Being able to “merge” mind states would make it very much messier still.
Do they need to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the intent was in the mind of Eva0 before duplication?
That’s gnarly.
Another aspect that I’m led to contemplate is the ease of collusion with your clone. It’s reasonable to believe that Eva1 would collude with Eva2 more easily than with an entirely different person.
Excellent points. I hadn’t given much thought to the psychological vs external sameness of selfhood.
One is naturally lead to wonder about how such dilemma would be dealt with in legal proceedings. Your assertion about the lack of an external objective criteria for the sameness of selfhood implies that if Eva1 committed a crime then we cannot reasonably convict Eva2 for it.
As Seth justly states, immediately after the cloning, all the Eva’s become different persons because they acquire different experiences. They do share a common history but they will soon start telling different stories about this history just as different people do.
Yes, legal identity is an even bigger can of worms. Even in some cases in the real world, you can already lose your continuity of “legal identity” in some corner cases. Being able to duplicate people would just make it even messier.
Do duplicates “inherit” into some sort of joint ownership of property? Is the property divided like inheritance? Are they new people entirely with no claims on property at all? What about citizenship? If Eva0 committed a crime, should we hold both Eva1 and Eva2 responsible for it? If after duplication Eva2 committed a crime that strongly benefits Eva1, but killed herself before conviction, can the prosecution go after Eva1? Do they need to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the intent was in the mind of Eva0 before duplication?
Being able to “merge” mind states would make it very much messier still.
That’s gnarly.
Another aspect that I’m led to contemplate is the ease of collusion with your clone. It’s reasonable to believe that Eva1 would collude with Eva2 more easily than with an entirely different person.