If this were possible it would discredit the theory of a soul. Souls are theoretically unique and to create an "exact" replica of a person would show that they do not exist.

I believe in souls and a person's spirit so I don't think this is possible because you could only get so far as to create a biological copy of someone possibly through cloning but they would never be "exactly" the same.

I like the idea however. I think we're already kind of moving towards this. We're already started to grow organs in laboratories. It really would be crazy if we could "grow" a human or another animal.

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Originally posted by Sunsnail But isnt the information on the brain stored physically? If you can recreate a brain from another perfectly the information will be transferred as well.

they might be stored physically, but i doubt its "written" in the same way as a hard disk. re-creating the brain from a molecular level wouldnt necessarily re-create the information "stored" on the brain.

still, this is hardly my area of expertise (by a long fucking shot) so i might very well be wrong

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Originally posted by tranceDJ If this were possible it would discredit the theory of a soul. Souls are theoretically unique and to create an "exact" replica of a person would show that they do not exist. I believe in souls and a person's spirit so I don't think this is possible because you could only get so far as to create a biological copy of someone possibly through cloning but they would never be "exactly" the same. I like the idea however. I think we're already kind of moving towards this. We're already started to grow organs in laboratories. It really would be crazy if we could "grow" a human or another animal.

What we're talking about and cloning aren't really the same thing at all.

Cloning is just the growing an organism that has the same DNA as another organism. What THIS involves is creating an exact replica of someone else, molecule by molecule. Cloning isnt this at all.

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Originally posted by tranceDJ If this were possible it would discredit the theory of a soul. Souls are theoretically unique and to create an "exact" replica of a person would show that they do not exist.

Whose theory is this?

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I believe in souls and a person's spirit so I don't think this is possible because you could only get so far as to create a biological copy of someone possibly through cloning but they would never be "exactly" the same.

Perhaps the "soul", the "spirit", is only something of social relevance and we exist as who we are due to a very unique social identity we allow to be assigned to ourselves. Without this self-ascribed identity, perhaps we can break free of our souls, and replicate ourselves as we see fit.

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I like the idea however. I think we're already kind of moving towards this. We're already started to grow organs in laboratories. It really would be crazy if we could "grow" a human or another animal.

Maybe we already can grow humans. Maybe you were grown.

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There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

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Originally posted by Sunsnail What we're talking about and cloning aren't really the same thing at all. Cloning is just the growing an organism that has the same DNA as another organism. What THIS involves is creating an exact replica of someone else, molecule by molecule. Cloning isnt this at all.

Yes, but I think the closest we'll ever get to "copying" a human even in the distant future is through cloning...it's at least the first step.

It would be interesting though if all this were possible to have two people side by side that had the exact same memories, personality traits, everything. How they would interact with each other.

I've read quite a few books on futurism and I really doubt the furthest we'd be able to get is cloning. Nanobots arent that far away

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Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On Whose theory is this?

Many religions suggest the theory of a spirit in each and every person. Other religions suggest the existance of a spirit in every living thing, even plants.

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Perhaps the "soul", the "spirit", is only something of social relevance and we exist as who we are due to a very unique social identity we allow to be assigned to ourselves. Without this self-ascribed identity, perhaps we can break free of our souls, and replicate ourselves as we see fit.

This could be very possible...it could be that our "spirit" is all in our heads and just how we differentiate ourselves from others. I can't imagine wanting to replicate myself but possibly others would want to. However if this technology were to fall in the hands of a person similiar to Hitler we may be in trouble.

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Maybe we already can grow humans. Maybe you were grown.

I'm pretty sure I came out of a vagina. Then again, I might start telling people that I was grown, sounds better.

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Originally posted by tranceDJ However if this technology were to fall in the hands of a person similiar to Hitler we may be in trouble.

I think this has been said for nearly every invention ever.

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Originally posted by Mebot No, because you are a product of your environment and no scientist can replicate that.

Why not though? it's all just atoms right?

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Fortuna Favet Fortibus.

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Originally posted by Allied Nations Why not though? it's all just atoms right?

Someone could just be playing with us.

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"You won a new refrigerator, great! Where you gonna put it?" - Tony Danza

No-one knows how self awareness or free will works, and there are theories relating to how memories are stored, but again, no-one really knows.

Cloning a person does not, and will never create an absolutel copy in terms of personality, self awareness and memories because these things are influenced by genetics but also have a huge environmental component (Hands up if you know a set of identical twins [effectively clones] that are identical in terms of personality... no hands, I thought not). Your genetics determine how many neurons you have, your experiences early in life determine how these neurons connect to each other.

Having said that, if you could create a COPY (NOT a clone) of someone, including an exact copy of the structure of their brain and the interconnections of every neuron within it, then I guess theorectically you could make 2 of the same person.

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super profundo on the early eve of your day

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Originally posted by Mickey V No-one knows how self awareness or free will works, and there are theories relating to how memories are stored, but again, no-one really knows. Cloning a person does not, and will never create an absolutel copy in terms of personality, self awareness and memories because these things are influenced by genetics but also have a huge environmental component (Hands up if you know a set of identical twins [effectively clones] that are identical in terms of personality... no hands, I thought not). Your genetics determine how many neurons you have, your experiences early in life determine how these neurons connect to each other. Having said that, if you could create a COPY (NOT a clone) of someone, including an exact copy of the structure of their brain and the interconnections of every neuron within it, then I guess theorectically you could make 2 of the same person.

WRONG

I know

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