Synchrony: Mirror Paradox

[musicman30mm]

I'm not sure if this is a true paradox, but it's certainly perplexing.  It is an idea I had while thinking about cloning that I believe tests free-will quite nicely.

The idea stemmed from something I'm sure is a common notion among sci-fi fans.  If there was a machine that could duplicate you as you are in a single moment, down to the quantum level, then send your information say from New-York to London, and rebuild you there.  We're talking about brain-matter structure, blood contents, neuro-chemistry... everything down to the planck scale precisely identical, all one would have to do is kill the person that walked into the New York end of the machine as the "clone" walked out the London end, and it would make a nice star-trekish transporter, without actually moving any matter.

Taking that idea one step further imagine someone being put to sleep and copied in said matter.  Then they are placed to exactly mirror each other in opposite sides of an impeccably symmetrical room, and woke at exactly the same moment.  They would move in exactly the same way, every eye blink, every twitch, tick and uncommanded flutter of hair- identical.  They couldn't talk each other out of the problem, or use physical assertions to introduce chaos, since one could not do or say a thing to the other without the other doing or saying exactly the same to him.

Until some environmental influence was introduced to one and not the other, they would be a horrible synchrony.  If, for example, the room was equipped with a symmetrically broadcasting speaker system, there would no instruction an outsider could give to help them diverge.

Conversely, the slightest imbalance would split them immediately.  For instance if one were to get a mote in his eye and not the other, he would become concerned with cleaning his eye and they would instantly begin a precession of divergence, analogously moving from a state of actually being the same person living in two different bodies to becoming two entirely separate, unique individuals.

Despite the fact that it requires incredible suspense of disbelief, I think it an interesting thought experiment.

Anyone else had the same/similar ideas (my clone perhaps!?)

Anything to ad?

[SteveS]

I do like how sci-fi authors play with this idea.  I like Peter F. Hamilton.  The last two books of his I read were "Pandora's Star" and "Judas Unchained" (one story split over the two books).  They were interesting, and specifically played off this cloning idea.  While living people could "rejuvenate" themselves and basically age-regress their bodies from time to time (thereby extending their life) they could also re-grow a new body and re-insert memories from a safe storage, so that if they were ever killed or died unexpectedly they could be "re-lifed".

In the story, one of the characters is old enough to have been around since the first "rejuvenations", but had never died and been "re-lifed".  He was highly skeptical about whether or not the re-lifed person would really be the same person.  The others told him he shouldn't be concerned by using the analogy that every night when you go to sleep you lose consciousness, but when you wake up you still have the same sense of personality.  So - what's the difference?

Anyway - its a fun thing to think about.  I certainly agree that the "clone" would be indistinguishable from the original.  With the same memories, the clone wouldn't even really be able to tell it is a clone.  And, I certainly agree that anyone who encountered my clone would be convinced it was me.

[lacey_sawyer]

I don't think that your experiment would go as you have hypothesized. I think if you had two identical people as you said mirroring each other in a symmetrical room, then as soon as one acted they would be different. Their experiences would change at the point when they first interact. They would then react differently even though they are the same person.

[Enigma]

Even if they have the same brain exactly, same memories and all, I think the randomness that slightly affects us would eventually stop the people from mirroring each other exactly.  Although they might do things very similarly.

[pjkeeley]

I think the randomness that slightly affects us would eventually stop the people from mirroring each other exactly.

What randomness are you referring to? I thought quantum theory only works at a sub-atomic level or somesuch.