Ask HN: Self-Consciousness Duplicate?

1 zipotm 5 7/22/2025, 7:14:15 AM
I wonder... if we clone our mind and put it into a computer, or another mind... from which eyes I will see?

Comments (5)

lastcat743 · 6h ago
Clone? No. Spontaneously entangled duplicate? Maybe something strange.

If there were a “stargate” that worm holes you to another location there’s a little dirty secret, the destination side is actually a fully entangled duplicate (matter does not transfer only “information” and complete entanglement). If the original is not incinerated (by design) there will be two.

Your barbaric man animal mind will unlikely be more than momentarily disoriented. With special training and development you can absolutely still perceive your other. Without being maintained the link would fade to decoherence.

If you had this skill you would not need the “stargate” to travel among and perceive the minds of others through entanglement.

lastcat743 · 4h ago
> unlikely be more than momentarily disoriented:

for “you” it would nearly seem not to work (though so skilled your other you would be your remote piloted view.)

For the other you it would be exactly you having transitioned through the exit side. That too can fully thought interact with your own double, if you could balance your mind on a pin like a seal in a circus with a ball you might just could do it. Just keep it there, in your mind, forever. Or it will be gone after your next nap.

thephotonsphere · 11h ago
not yours (you don't have any)
zipotm · 10h ago
I mean the following thing - there are conceptions of exporting/importing mind. But if we cut -> paste, then we should copy -> paste. And what happens when we have two identical minds copied one next to another. The "I" factor can't be copied, I'm trying to explain that there is an X part which is linked to the self-consciousness.
yawpitch · 10h ago
Close your eyes. Throw a stick in the air. Now, open your eyes and walk in the direction the stick fell.

You took the left fork.

Rewind the world, but not you. Repeat, but this time let the RNG of the universe choose another direction for that stick.

You took the right fork.

Both happened… you went down both forks, but you only know the fork you went down alone.

Exactly the same thing would occur… if you’re the cloned you’d see through your own eyes. If you were the clone, however, you’d see through the clone’s eyes. You’d be you to you in both cases, despite now being different yous.

Considering we’re all, effectively, clones of each other (modulo an actually extremely small amount of genetic drift) this shouldn’t feel all that surprising. Your brother isn’t you, neither is your fraternal twin, neither is your identical twin, and neither is your conjoined twin.