Me, My Clone, and I

I really love the experience of being me. I therefore view the whole business of me being alive as having central importance in the universe. The only really important thing, actually. But the fact is, I'm mortal and will sooner or later die.

I am, of course, very interested in recent developments in the field of longevity and the promise of various treatments that can extend life in a working body for many years, as well as cryopreservation, where brain and body are preserved at low temperature while we wait for future medical technology to catch up with whatever caused them to stop working. But no matter how long I manage to keep this package working, that just increases the chances of me eventually getting hit by a thermonuclear bomb or experiencing some other irreversible form of physical annihilation.

Sooner or later a technology for mind cloning will become available. Initially some versions of this will be indistinguishable from a stimulus-response machine. Such a simulation may be of interest to some other people, but not to me. I'm interested in the subjective experience of my own consciousness, not in having a simulacrum of me in the world annoy or entertain other people.

Eventually, though, we might achieve, through brain simulation or molecular-level replication, something that really is identical to my mind, consciousness and all. That clone can be arranged to kick in as soon as I die, and continue living my life, having the exact same memories, tendencies, and preferences. So either I'm going to die, or I'm going to die and then someone else, Eleanor Prime, will go on living the life I'll never get to live. Fuck you, Eleanor Prime! I'm jealous and I hate you.