It’s a new year, so let’s get my stretch* goal of at least one blog post per year out of the way.

A recent Bluesky post by the wonderful author Carrie Rubin regarding teleportation, reminded me of a thought experiment I proposed to some friends many decades ago. The discussion (circa 1985) was centered on how close science fact was getting to science fiction. I recall I had just convinced my friends that even if we could, we shouldn’t fulfill the Jetson’s Era prediction of flying cars. All I had to do was point out how people currently drive in two dimensions. Do we really need to curse at drivers above and below us as well?

Anyway, the subject moved on from there and spread to three separate topics from their points of view: teleportation, cloning, and robots. I say separate from their points of view because I had been musing recently about eternal life from a technological aspect, and that touched on all three topics. Since the discussion seemed germane, I decided to raise it. My goal was to illustrate how any form of duplication does not equal life-extension. Quite the opposite, in fact. I called it The Frankenstein/Twin Problem (a riff on The Mind/Body Problem philosophers and scientists wrangled over regarding consciousness). I explained this would cover cloning and robots and, oddly enough, teleportation as collateral damage. I posed the question as follows: Assume you wish to extend your corporeal existence indefinitely. At a high level, what are your options? I posited three.

Frankensteining:
To me, this is the one path with the logical guarantee you remain alive and you remain yourself. To do so, you are looking for a way to renew your body while keeping your brain, the predominant location of your sense of self, intact. I call this, for want of a better term, a Frankenstein solution. I’m not talking about reanimating dead tissue through the use of electricity and a humpbacked henchman. I’m focusing on the process of creating a new body so your living brain can then transplanted into it. Perhaps your name is Abby Normal. When completed, you now exist in a new body and you are still you – neck bolts optional. Of course, your brain is still as old as it was pre-operation and will continue to degrade. That’s a legitimate issue needing a solution, but at least your body has a new lease on life which will buy you many years (with replacements when needed). For further reference, consult The Man with Two Brains (1983). Now let’s look at the cloning and robotics solutions and see where they lead.

Cloning:
To be clear here, this is not “create a clone and put your brain in it”. That comes under Frankensteining. This is full cloning based on Sci-Fi movies and TV shows where someone extends their life by creating a clone. Here, the original dies as the clone comes to life. These plots are often poorly written, with The Boys from Brazil (1976 novel) being a notable exception. But even there. All that effort to recreate someone who will devastatingly spiral out of control? Anyway, the clone comes to life with all of the original’s memories. Now our subject is reborn!

Downloading:
Here, a humanoid robot is created for the subject. Again, we’re not transplanting a brain (cyborgification?). That also would come under Frankensteining. We’re talking about the trope of a mind being downloaded into a robotic shell, or a computer, or a hologram, or a vacuum – whatever. Now our subject is reborn!

Or not – in both cases. To see why, we need some thought experiments regarding duplication.

Let’s start with a cloning experiment. Imagine we have the power to not just grow a clone from body cells, but immediately duplicate all of them so that the copy and the original are indistinguishable at the microscopic and chemical levels. Like 3-D printing, but organic. Specifically and theoretically, original and clone will also share identical engrams: i.e. memories. Now, imagine this procedure is performed with the original and copy existing in two separate chambers. The original awakens and probably asks something like, “Did it work? Is my clone alive?” In the other chamber, the clone awakens and will also ask, “Did it work? Is my clone alive?” You see, the clone has absolutely no way of knowing it is not the original and that’s critical.

So let’s tweak this scenario a bit so we can get back to longevity. In this modified scenario, there are three key differences. One, the clone’s body is created in a way so that it’s younger. Otherwise everything is duplicated as before so memories are intact. Two, the mad scientists involve mislead the original by explaining this is a machine to make people young again. They lie because… Three, the original is destroyed in the process, and no self-respecting mad scientist wants to deal with the messy legal ramifications.

Now what happens?

The original is dead. Finito. Toast. The clone, having no experience to tell it otherwise, emerges, sees itself in a mirror, and will likely remark, “It worked! I’m young again!” The scientists dance with glee. The clone goes on to tell everyone to buy into this process and they’ll live forever. The clone has no reason to think it is not the original, but the original is, hammer this home, dead. The clone is not the original no matter how strongly it thinks it is. Not so good for you should you choose the cloning path. You may be copied identically, but it has no effect on your longevity, except to shorten it as in this scenario.

So maybe we should consider “downloading”. In 2026, that’s still a popular thought among the tech bro set. In the (near, for the more optimistic techs) future, we’ll be able to download our minds into robots and live forever. First, we’ll add implants so you can enhance your brain with hard drives (backed up onto OneDrive with a subscription from Microsoft). Later, we’ll have the technology to offload it all onto a device which can be plugged into the synthetic body of your choice. How cool is that?

It’s not. Let’s think about what’s happening here – using our bio-based brains, bro. Say I take a piece of paper and scribble something on it. I scan it – digitizing it, then toss the original into a fire. The digitized version is then downloaded to a printer and recreated to the highest fidelity imaginable – even reproducing the chemical nature of the ink and paper used for the scribbling. But it’s still a copy. The original is a pile of ash. Likewise, it doesn’t matter how faithfully you digitize all of the nuances of a mind, it is a reproduction. A reproduction. The robot will awaken and say, “It worked! I can live forever!” but it is not the original no matter how strongly it thinks it is. Your implanted add-ons storing photos, a music library, Google maps, and whatever will be moved, but the original you, the biological one that was born and acquired self-consciousness is dead (or cast aside to die). So digitizing for immortality is an illusion. You were duped, bro.

And once I formulated all of this, it led me to rethink transporters. The way it works on Star Trek and many subsequent science fictions is to scan a person at the quantum level, breaking them down into subatomic particles, then convert it all into an energy pattern. That pattern (data) can be transmitted, and subsequently perfectly reassembled into the person at some far-off destination. I immediately realized this is the “Twin” half of the Frankenstein/Twin Problem. You are broken down (killed!) and then, similar to digitization or our instant cloning, reassembled (copied). That’s right, killed – to repeat, step one is to atomize you.

So every time characters in Star Trek get transported, they die while their copies ignorantly pick up where the originals left off. (“The teleporter worked! I can go anywhere!”) I think the writers in later series realized this (at least subconsciously) as there were plots involving accidental duplication, restoration to a former “pattern”, etc. I mean, if you have the teleporter create a copy, you’ve pretty much admitted they all are. I believe they even mentioned their replicators use the same technology (insert President Obama spreading hands gif here). So for you OG Star Trek fans out there, I’m with Dr. McCoy. Don’t beam me up, I’ll take a shuttle.

[*]Stretch goal: Do this and you can enjoy a sense of accomplishment, stretch out on the couch, and revel in not having a type-A personality.