this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2025
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In media, there are sometimes stories where a person is cloned/duplicated (usually with identical memories) and the clone is murderous towards the original. Usually it's something like "I knew there could be only one of us, and you would do the same". Sometimes, they're able to work things out and can share a single public identity, or duplication gives one copy a chance to do go off and live a new life that they always wanted.

How would you and your duplicate get along? Assume you are living like you do today, in a society where duplication is unheard of and has no legal precedent.

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[–] TheHotze@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

I'm not sure I could kill someone truly unmistakably evil, let alone someone I can emphasize strongly with. If my duplicate gets that too, they aren't killing me.

[–] CH3DD4R_G0BL1N@sh.itjust.works 18 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I’d finally have a reliable coop gaming partner. Neither of us would squander that truly priceless gift.

[–] Gonzako@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

Also, you can just work either double the time or half each.

[–] Walk_blesseD@lemmy.blahaj.zone 26 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Probably spend the first couple of days fucking and then figure out what happens next after that.

[–] 0_0j@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

Ooh boy πŸ˜‚

[–] noxypaws@pawb.social 15 points 6 days ago

hell no, we'd start an onlyfans.

[–] howrar@lemmy.ca 10 points 6 days ago

A friend who thinks exactly the same as I do and can get excited at the same ideas? Hell yeah, we'd be inseparable. I have so many projects that would be much easier done with two people. Also, free gym buddy/trainer. My partner would be into it as well for a multitude of reasons. The only trouble would be living space.

I can't think of anything worthwhile we can do as a single legal entity so first thing we'd do is probably acquire a new legal identity so we can legally work and be taxed separately and just generally participate in society. It would be pretty easy to prove that we're genetically identical and therefore are identical twins born at the same time at the same place to the same parents. Everything else can be chalked up to clerical error. The people in charge of this aren't paid enough to care and dig any further than that.

[–] communism@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don't think I'd kill me. I think it would be cool for one of us to commit a brazen crime in broad daylight whilst also having a rock-solid alibi. I couldn't have killed that person; I was giving a speech to 100 people at the time who can all testify for me. Give detectives etc a real head-scratcher when all the evidence points towards me being the culprit but I was also undeniably somewhere else.

[–] PiecePractical@midwest.social 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I'm picturing me and my duplicate having a fight that devolved into us actually trying to kill each other over this because honestly, I'd rather shoot a man.....no scratch that, I'd rather BE shot than give a speech in front of a significant number of people.

[–] Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago

Even better then, your speech would be so memorably bad that people would be even more certain it was you and you couldn't have been elsewhere.

[–] djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

This post and the numerous replies affirming our clones wouldn't try to kill us makes me wonder, what is the basis for this trope? Is it just the assumption that any doppelganger must be evil? I wonder what the cultural origins are, would it be European fae?

Anyway, I'm pretty sure my clone would still try to kill me, but it'd be doing so out of kindness. I've always wanted to die on my feet in combat, and I've never wanted to live, so we'd kinda be fighting over who gets the privilege of death. Whichever one of us wins has to keep going, while the other gets released.

[–] CrackedLinuxISO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I always felt like murderous clones are a bit different from evil twins.

From a sci-fi perspective, I've noticed that murderous clone stories tend to explore the following themes:

  • Whose life is more valid? Does an original have any more right to life than the clone? What aspects of life can never be split between two people with equal claim?
  • Would the murder ever matter, in the grand scheme of things? As far as society can tell, the world is exactly the same before you are cloned and after one of you kills the other.
  • Could the survivor ever be brought to justice? If the clone tried to kill you because they knew you would try to kill them, does that make it self defence or premeditated murder? Would any punishment would be a net loss for society, when compared before the clone appeared?
  • Could this "self destructive" impulse hide deeply inside even the nicest person? How much does a person love themselves? Can self-love even apply when the "self" is also external?
[–] johannes@lemmy.jhjacobs.nl 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I'd give him the keys, the passwords, and wish him good luck with my life. BUH BEYE!

[–] Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml 6 points 6 days ago

If he's you and you want to be free of your life and wish it could be someone else's problem then your duplicate is just going to run a mile and thank their lucky stars for this break.

[–] apotheotic@beehaw.org 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

She and I would definitely be fucking tbh.

Other than that, finally, enough time in the day to work on hobbies. One clone works, the other hobbys, and alternate every now and again.

[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

But... you don't need a clone to do that. Just find anyone who wants to live with you and work 50%.

[–] apotheotic@beehaw.org 5 points 6 days ago

The likelihood of me waking up with a clone is higher than the likelihood of me finding someone I want to live with

[–] That_Devil_Girl@lemmy.ml 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

No, we would work together on tasks. I would walk to work while Other Me would take my car and get errands done. Or to change things up a little, Other Me could walk to work and I would run errands.

Hell, Other Me could play my online games and make progress while I'm at work. I've been meaning to level up my Black Mage in FFXIV, but life has kept me busy.

In the evenings, we would have to clearly explain to each other what we did that day and who we interacted with. Otherwise we risk diverging into two different people.

[–] Corno@lemm.ee 6 points 6 days ago

Oh god, two of me! πŸ˜‚

I think she'd keep telling me dumb jokes while trying to compete with me in drawing, and late at night she'd send me goofy memes that I'd laugh at.

[–] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

So far my identical twin has not killed me nor have I killed them, so I'd be safe probably.

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

I've seen so many TV shows, movies, even commercials where a clone or future self doesn't get along with his twin. I don't understand this. I think I'd get along swimmingly with myself. I mean what's better than spending time with someone who thinks like you do?

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 5 points 6 days ago

I think my duplicate and I would take turns working versus staying at home to get things done, like putting together that cat tower/rope-bridge I've (we've) been holding off on

[–] deathbird@mander.xyz 7 points 6 days ago

I wouldn't feel compelled to kill my clone, so I don't think my clone would feel compelled to kill me either.

So I've been thinking about this and I think it mostly depends on if my wife was also duplicated. If so, I could see the 4 of us living together and pooling resources. Possibly even working out some shenanigans to double dip or get out of some things. However, I can't see my wife or myself being cool with an arrangement where a duplicate and I share my wife. I don't know if I'd kill The other me over it but, I could see us coming to blows over it.

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 8 points 6 days ago

Anyone who has the thought: "yes i would kill clone me", you better watch your back, your clone thinks the same way you do.

I'm one of the copies and I'm more charming than the original that I killed.

Yes, cause I operate under Highlander Rules.

[–] finkrat@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

No actually we would probably be really sweet to each other and understanding. I am not naturally very competitive or hostile.

[–] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

I also would bang the clone.

Nah I’m pretty chill so imagine clone me would also be chill.

[–] MTK@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Is it narcissistic to think that having a clone would be awesome as hell?

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Do his farts smell the same as mine? Then no, sorry dude you've gotta go live somewhere else.

[–] Glytch@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

If it's a perfect copy, without a doubt we'd try to kill each other as soon as the confusion of the situation wore off. We might not succeed, but we'd try.

[–] Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 days ago

I'm pretty nice. I think it'd take some more intense circumstances like in Dark Matter before I or a copy of me wanted to kill anyone. I wonder if I'd be ok with taking turns for time with loved ones.

[–] NONE_dc@lemmy.world 44 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nah, We would become buddies. We would pretend to be twins in public. We'd split the work, I'd go one week and he'd go the other. We'd play Soulcalibur and Tekken and since we'd both be equally bad it wouldn't be frustrating.

[–] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It would be hard to alternate work if its a professional role. You would have to do like update sessions and it would make more work for both of you relative to pay.

[–] AtariDump@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Like the twins in β€œMoving” with Richard Pryor.

[–] Orygin@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Or work together and do the job in half the time and enjoy the rest

I was thinking that. If it was remote during meetings you could alternate being face or listening lying on a couch.

[–] python@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago (2 children)

We'd get along fine, but feeding two people on one salary will definitely be annoying (my job has a non-competition clause where I can't pick up a second job in the same field), and getting enough adhd meds for the both of us will be impossible due to strict regulations here.

One of us still could bring value to the household by being the designated bangmaid though

[–] med@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago

I would trade meticulous handover notes fit in to the working week if it meant I could work one week on, one week off.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

you job barely pays enough to feed you AND and you have a noncompete?

There is almost no way that's enforceable.

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[–] bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 24 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Too many people with twin fetishism to bother with murder.

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[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 23 points 1 week ago

Hopefully my clone murders me so he's the one that has to go to work

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