I was thinking about cloning, and people say that if you cloned Hitler or Einstein, you wouldn't get the real person, just a lookalike. If I wanted to clone Thomas Edison, couldn't I build a little town, fill it full of actors, and recreate every day of Thomas Edison's life, so his clone would end up just like him? Any ideas?
2007-06-15 10:12:26 · 8 answers · asked by Dr. Psychosis 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
To demonstrate the really big problem with what you propose, let's consider Isaac Newton.
We all probably know the story about how he supposedly came up with the theory of gravitation... he was lolling around, thinking of stuff, saw an apple fall from a tree, and that jogged his line of thinking into a new direction (in some versions of the story, the apple even hits him on the head).
And here's the point - an apple happening to fall from a tree while he happened to be there and in a receptive state was essentially a completely random event. It turns out that HE remembered the event that sent him in a completely new direction, but who knows how many other apparently completely random and meaningless events ALSO conspired to produce that occurrance? Maybe the only reason he had a free afternoon was because someone cancelled an apointment. Maybe the only reason he was sitting around was because he had a bad lunch and didn't feel too well. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Even if you (somehow) knew everything that a person THOUGHT was important in their lives, that doesn't necessarily provide you with any information about such serendipitous occurrances. And without them, your duplicate may go off in a completely different direction.
There's also the second point: completely duplicating a person in this way may be entirely pointless. Nobody wants another Edison who will try and invent a light bulb. We already have BETTER light bulbs. You want a MODERN inventor who will produce new things useful to us now. And it is possible that even a mechanically inclined and well-trained modern Edison may not be able to do this - it could be that he lacks the talent to really get at the core of modern problems. It could be that Aristotle wouldn't be much use with thousands of years of recorded philosophy already there to work with. And it is quite possible that Machiavelli really has no insights about modern politics no matter how good he was with ancient ways.
So save yourself the trouble. You wouldn't want an exact duplicate of Thomas Edison even if you could produce one. Which I would be greatly surprised if you could.
2007-06-15 10:31:36 · answer #1 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yeah probably. Einstein, especially Hitler were shaped in some way by the social events they lived through and oppurtunities which surfaced along the way.
If you created a Hitler clone, he would probably pursue his original dream of being an artist. So recreating every day of that figures life would hopefully create an exact copy, but some things may not be controlled e.g no war or massive event, early death due to disease etc.
But such a simulation would be needed by minute by minute detail, which simply isn't possible.
2007-06-15 10:22:15 · answer #2 · answered by Chris W 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No because for example with Thomas Edison we don't know every minute of his life, it might of been something tiny that defined him as a person. You may get a person similar but not the same. Also this could be thought of as unethical.
2007-06-15 10:22:00 · answer #3 · answered by umm_hey_world66 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you would first need to recreate the same biological person and then the same environment to grow him or her.
But then think for a bit : to recreate the same exact biological person and the same environment, you would need the same mother to give the same birth.
But to get the mother you are back to the first step.
so basically, the answer is clearly NO.
no need to think much about it.
And you need the same biological person to get the same result : you would not get the same life being 4 or 6 feet, right ?
2007-06-15 10:24:04 · answer #4 · answered by Lanuza D 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If you recreate Life, you must recreate Death.
2007-06-15 11:14:13 · answer #5 · answered by Goychie 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, this would not work! The past is gone, dust in the wind!
2007-06-15 16:40:43 · answer #6 · answered by tonal9nagual 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No you wouldn't. The universe has churned onward and it cannot be brought back.
2007-06-15 13:10:20 · answer #7 · answered by Sophist 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course not
2007-06-15 10:19:53 · answer #8 · answered by dee 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋