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Live forever? : r/theories - Reddit

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A Reddit thought experiment about cloning yourself to cheat death exposes the deepest paradoxes in personal identity theory — is a copy of you actually *you*?

Personal Identity TheoryShip of TheseusParfit's Psychological ContinuityTranshumanism

Theory Briefing

  • A Reddit user imagines cloning and raising identical copies of oneself indefinitely as a personal immortality strategy.
  • The scheme collides with the Ship of Theseus problem — if your memories and experiences don't transfer, the clone is a new person, not a continuation.
  • Derek Parfit's teleportation paradox applies directly: psychological continuity, not biological identity, is what most philosophers say makes you 'you'.