If you had a clone, what would you have the clone do?
Answers
Answer:
When we think of cloning ourselves, we are often doing so while laboring under quite a few false assumptions.
A cloned creature begins as little more than a cell, which if it follows natural progression, grows up eventually into an adult, taking about the time it took “you” to become “you.”
However, both versions are travelling along different timelines. “You #1” might be 35 year old, but “You #2” is an infant. Everything that makes “you” into the unique person that you are now is based upon your life experiences-to-date. Change much of anything, including fine details you had as a child, would mean that you would not be the same person and have the same thoughts.
A cloned human being is only a genetic duplicate of the original, not a mental duplicate. They would always and forever be uniquely separate individuals.
So, perhaps the question would be better asked, what would you have a child who superficially looked like you (at that age), but was otherwise different in every way, do? Or do you wish to wait until the child becomes an adult, then it is an elderly “you” asking a not-so-coincidental younger relative to do something?
The only possible “use” of such a person to the original is to serve a rather sinister purpose: a genetically matched source of failing organs. Even so, even with current technology, much of that sort of thing would not require an entire human being; merely vats of developing organs hooked up to life-supporting machinery.
Answer:
Although there’s no way I’d want another me running around, in the unlikely event I were to have another me at my disposal, I would definitely have a few things I’d want him to do.
First and foremost, I’d make a deal with him to take turns helping out with family stuff and school. On weeks where I’m normally going to school and working, I’d have him over at my grandparents’ place, driving them around, and most of all, giving my grandmother someone to talk to as my grandfather has Alzheimer’s and sadly is no longer completely “there.”
Andy II’s pay will be a free lunch and lots of quality time with family. Plus it would give me a better conscious knowing that there’s someone keeping Grandma company and trying to talk to Grandpa. He’s capable of having a conversation if we talk about his college days.
From there, I’d ask him to occasionally take over my shifts on weekends, as I have a long, 6 hour night and closing one on Saturdays. He can log down the hours he works so I can withdraw the amount he earned to make sure he’s paid fairly.
Other than that, chatting about current affairs and topics I’m aware of with “myself” might make for an interesting experience.