Twinmaker: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''The machine, in fact, merely analyzed the contents of the first booth, then sent a description of it to the second booth, where a copy was created. The contents of the first booth were then '''destroyed'''''.|''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}pdxucpPq6Lc To Be]''}}

 

 

 

Where this trope gets interesting is how the moral status of the new copy and the moral implications of disposing of the original are handled. First, the treatment of the twin: Some characters won't see the problem with treating them both as if they were the same person, whereas others will point out that it only works from an ''external'' viewpoint: the person will seem exactly the same to everyone else, but the actual stream of consciousness has been severed, and the new copy is, in this sense, a completely different person. Sometimes it will be argued that the copy doesn't count as the original person, though given how interchangeable they would be if the paperwork for their birth certificates were ever mixed up, this argument is harder to hold up for long.

Second, the ethics of disposing of the original: If this matter is addressed at all in fiction, the [[Uniqueness Value]] and [[Cloning Blues]] tropes may well be invoked or played with as part of the story. A teleportation machine that worked in the manner of the short story ''To Be'' (see quotation above) would probably be regarded as a killing machine, but if there is any doubt about whether the stream-of-consciousness continues or not, the issue may well be sidestepped. If nothing in the device suggests anything sinister, it's generally treated as harmless. It's probably a straightforward [[Teleportation]].

 

 

 

{{examples}}

** Furthermore, a [[Freeze-Frame Bonus]] reveals that the lower half of Lilith is actually {{spoiler|''[http://www.evacommentary.org/full-op/full-op_C237_comp.jpg Unit-01]''.}}

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[The Prestige]]'', {{spoiler|a man owns a machine that creates a duplicate of whatever's put inside it, and either teleports the original away or creates the copy some distance away. It's revealed he had done this several times to himself for a magic trick, each time drowning whichever one remained in place.}}

** {{spoiler|This troper thought it was clear that it was the copy that appeared some distance away, creating the appearance of teleportation - so the magician had actually repeatedly drowned versions of himself and been replaced with a clone}}

** The first time this happens, {{spoiler|the one who stayed in place shot the one who appeared at a distance, meaning the original Angier is dead either way}}. (Then again, the concept of [http://lesswrong.com/lw/r9/quantum_mechanics_and_personal_identity/ "the original"] isn't well-defined, given what we know about quantum physics.)

 

== Literature ==

* In some of [[Greg Egan]]'s stories, characters deal with things by imagining a line of continuity from the death of the first copy to the creation of the second, despite the lack of causal connection; this shows up in ''[[Permutation City]]'' and in ''Schild's Ladder'', and possibly elsewhere.

{{quote|"I'm [[Humans by Any Other Name|embodied]], not deranged! If a copy of my mind experiences a few minutes' consciousness, then is lost, that's not the death of anyone. It's just amnesia."}}

* Averted in [[Sergey Lukyanenko]]'s ''[[Line of Delirium]]'', where the aTan machine re-creates people after their deaths by replicating their bodies from the previous molecular scan and downloading the stored memories into the new brains. Originally, it is claimed by the aTan Corporation that each re-created person is indeed new, although they are considered to be the heir to the dead person's life. However, it is revealed later that re-creating the same person twice only results in one having a consciousness, while the other is a mindless zombie, only able to passively answer questions and perform routine tasks. This is due to something the aTan people call the "[[Our Souls Are Different|x-factor]]" that is present in humans and several other races. When a person dies and his or her body is re-created by aTan, this "x-factor" locates the new body and inhabits it, giving this new body the same consciousness as the dead person. For some reason, the aTan Corporation decides to keep this a secret from the general public, only informing the [[The Church|Church of the One Will]] of their findings. Needless to say, the Patriarch immediately gives full blessing to aTan. After all, it's not every day that someone proves the existence of the soul.

* [[China Mieville]]'s novel ''[[Kraken (novel)|Kraken]]'' has a nasty subplot based on this idea, about an [[Urban Fantasy]] magician who developes a teleportation spell consciously inspired by ''[[Star Trek]]'' transporters. He doesn't realise that the method actually kills the original and creates an unaware, perfect copy until the vengeful spirits of his dead former versions start haunting him. {{spoiler|The hero finally deliberately submits to this as a [[Heroic Sacrifice]], as it's the only fast enough way to get him where he needs to be to save the world.}}

* In ''[[The End of Eternity]]'', the eponymous organization considers replicators as undesirable as nuclear wars - because there can be no satisfactory solution to the problems caused by this trope.

 

* ''[[Farscape]]'' had a subplot of Crichton's twinning. Although in this case, neither one was a copy or original exactly. Crichton really was just duplicated/"twinned" into two identical Crichtons (they play rock-paper-scissors and draw some 100+ in a row).

** They even use this in the next episode to have one twin impersonate the other to "prove" Crichton was never at the scene of an explosion (since he is of course, completely unhurt).

* In an episode of ''[[Earth: Final Conflict]]'', Liam is implanted with a tracking device by Sandoval at Zo'or's request, as they have grown suspicious of him. In order to allow them to continue their investigation and keep Sandoval and Zo'or in the dark, Street puts Liam into a mini-coma and uses a modified ID portal to create a quantum duplicate of him without the tracking device, although she claims that the universe will eventually erase him out of existence. The duplicate Liam is identical to the original in every way and doesn't seem to mind being the copy. At the end of the episode, he makes a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save Renee. Just before the [[Earthshattering Kaboom]], he sends a message to Sandoval, which confuses the latter to no end, as he knows thanks to the tracking chip that Liam is nowhere near that location. He later questions the real Liam, who has no memories of these events, before dismissing the matter.

** Like many devices introduced in the series, this Twinmaker is never mentioned again, even though it would have been very helpful in many other circumstances.

 

** As of 3E the Clone spell simply creates an inert duplicate that the original's soul transfers to at death.

* ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'' uses [[Brain Uploading]] for both pseudo-immortality and most interplanetary "travel". Though unless they were really rich someone rarely gets downloaded into a clone, rather a "used morph" that happened to be lying around at the body bank. Making more than one active copy of a person is fairly easy and highly illegal, but slightly edited copies are sometimes used for a form of real-time interplanetary communication.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]''.

* Shadow from ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' was revealed to be possibly a clone of the one from ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]'' at the end of ''[[Sonic Heroes]]''. The other two members of Team Dark discovers a lab full clones in tubes, and [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|destroy them all without telling him]]. Rouge reveals she knew he was a copy the entire time. This being the first game after Sega went third-party, the writing hadn't ''completely'' started to suck yet.

* In the ''[[Star Trek Armada]]'' games, ''Nebula''-class ships have a special ability called the "Gemini Effect", which temporarily creates a duplicate of the target ship. With some quick thinking, this ability can be used to get free resources by duplicating a vessel and then scrapping the duplicate for parts. The game designers, apparently, did not think of this possibility.

 

== Web Comics ==

* In ''[[Freefall]]'' robots don't care much about backups. [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff400/fv00383.htm Want to know why?]

** Similarly, later on {{spoiler|Schlock is killed off, and a new Schlock is created to replace him. The new Schlock thinks it's kind of cool, "but not cool enough to do twice."}}

 

== Web Original ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In one ''[[Aeon Flux]]'' episode, the titular character's archenemy and lover creates a clone of her. The clone and the original meet and conspire against him. In the end, one of them gets gunned down in front of Trevor. {{spoiler|It wasn't the clone.}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Futuristic Tech Index]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Teleportation Tropes]]