If you could make perfect clones, would you have sex with yourself?

In My Humble Opinion
41

Absolutely. I’m hot, and I know what I like. Plus my partner would be thrilled !

I mean, if I’m suspending my disbelief enough to imagine a clone of myself, I can suspend it far enough to imagine that anti-incest instinct (or any related ick-factors) won’t be an issue. Right?

42

Umm… why not?

43

A very simlar plot thread occured on an episode of Sliders. The Quinn meets a woman and they are immediately, and inexplicably attracted to each other. After having great sex, Quinn discovers that she is this world’s version of him.

Another question that comes up is would this clone want to have sex with you? Assume for the sake of argument, that the clone is full adult age and in excellent physical condition, and contains all of your memories and experiences up to the time that he/she first appeared. And since we’re doing the impossible, a little genetic tweaking could be done during the process to bring all of the clone’s most desirable physical traits to the surface, making him/her as physically attractive as possible.

You would expect to have a person who has your same thoughts, tastes, values, and desires, and is very attractive in addition.

Now change perspectives, and put yourself in the clone’s shoes. You come to consciousness one day to find that you are suddenly the opposite sex, in fantastic physical condition, and extraordinarily attractive, but still have all of the same memories and experiences you had before. In essense, you’ve been transformed into an extremely attractive member of the opposite sex. This is what it would be like for the clone.

This leads to a series of questions.

  1. Would you be happy if you were suddenly the opposite sex?
  2. Would you trust the person who had done this to you, even if it was you?
  3. Would you be sexually attracted to your old sex?
  4. Would the current you be good enough for the new, opposite sex but much more attractive you?

My answers would be:

  1. No way to tell on this one. How fundamental is one’s sex to their sense of identity? When you see a person for the first time, the first two things you try to figure out about them is their sex and a rough estimate of age. You do this so automatically that you don’t think about it, but think of how it probably bothers you a bit when you meet someone and cannot immediately assign gender. Sex is one of the most fundamental ways we relate to others, but how much is it a part of our core image of ourself.

If you cannot see yourself as being happy as a member of the opposite sex having sex with your current sex, then the clone you would not really be a willing partner for yourself, which would render the main point moot.

  1. You’d think the answer would be obviously yes, because you would know going in that the clone would share your beliefs and values, but from the moment the clone gains consciousness, she would be an independent person with new experiences that you could never really understand. You would just start to grow apart as you had different experiences, you would start from that first moment with a gulf between you caused by the clone’s knowing she was created for your benefit, and by the simple fact that their are differences between male and female, inborn, socialized, and in how they are treated. Another I don’t know.

  2. What is the cause of sexual attraction? Is it physical needs of the body, a psychological need, a combination of both? Is it inborn or learned? Assuming for a moment that the original was a heterosexual male does this mean that the clone would still be heterosexual, or would the clone still be attracted to women? Would the mind be in conflict with the body, and if so, which would come to be dominant? Once again, the answer is I don’t know.

  3. Hell no. If I were suddenly an extremely attractive young woman, there’s no way I’d settle for me. I still have difficulty understanding how my wife is so deluded as to think I’m good enough for her.

44

Ick. It’d be my brother. Ick. Or sister. Ick. Ick, ick ick.

Incidentally if anyone can scare up a copy of John Varley’s collection, The Persistance of Vision, there’s an excellent story “The Phantom of Kansas,” that deals with exactly such a scenario.