Would my clone "feel my pain?"

Not literally maybe… My question is (varying circumstances aside), would my clone, an exact copy, have the same thoughts, IQ ( hopefully not) and vocational tendencies as myself? If I had a buring desire to be a doctor since five years of age would my clone have the same desire at the same time to the same degree? If I had a natural ear for music would my clone have a natural ear for music and so on. Or would it depend mostly on the effect of his environment over time… oh shit I am getting into behavioral vs. stimulus/response…
Bottom line …is it possible that could we produce another Paul McCartney?

Your clone would resemble you less than one identical twin tends to resemble the other–less because identical twins go through the same age & physical maturity phases at the same time, whereas your clone will come along years or even decades later (unless you were cloned in the newborn nursery wing of the hospital or something).

Cloning Paul McCartney now won’t give you a second Paul McCartney (which is just as well, I think…). It might conceivably give you a musician, or perhaps instead an author or poet or person with a gift for producing something in the pop culture vein. Then again, maybe not.


Designated Optional Signature at Bottom of Post

Your clone would be basically the same thing as an identical twin of yourself. From what I’ve experienced/read about identical twins, they often have similar talents/interests/temperments, but environmental factors keep them from becoming true “coppies”. Interestingly, twins raised apart at often look/dress/work more alike than those raised together- perhaps growing up with a twin “influences your environment” by encouraging you to assert your individuality by being a little different than your twin.
As for cloning Paul McCartney, try to get this one to retire before his “My Love Does it Good” era.

But Paul WAS cloned, wasn’t he? I thought he died back in the 60’s–yet I still see him on TV…

It seems like you haven’t asked or researched on the net what a ‘clone’ is. You should do this. We already covered it here plenty, too.

A clone is not that scientific fantasy version of a duplicate of yourself.

Its a twin physical version. Eviromental factors, etc make the rest. Also, if you are 40, your clone gonna be 40 years younger than you.

Tabula Rasa


We live in an age that reads to much to be wise, and thinks too much to be beautiful–Oscar Wilde

As a clone myself (or at least an identical twin) I second JKB’s point. Twins sometimes end up quite differently as a matter of intention. She likes pickles, for instance, which I just don’t understand. She’s a programmer and I study art in grad school. We do have some similar mannerisms, but it’s likely that those stem from upbringing and not genetics.
I think genetics has a bit to do with predilictions, tendencies, etc., but many years of experience in the world has a very strong effect on one’s personality. You know, the diversity of human experience and all that. I’m not sure how one could tell whether a particular trait stemmed from nature or nurture-- isolating a pair from each other would necessitate a different environment, so it would defeat the project. So I guess you’d have as much in common as you would with any identical twin who grew up and lived separately from you.

If you like reading science fiction, you can read a writer’s idea of how one might try to go about “cloning” a person in “Cyteen” by C.J. Cherryh. In the novel, a person is cloned and then people attempt to raise the clone in the same environment. You won’t get any “hard” scientific knowledge out of the book, but it’s a good read.


La franchise ne consiste pas à dire tout ce que l’on pense, mais à penser tout ce que l’on dit.
H. de Livry

*Arnold Winkelried: If you like reading science fiction, you can read a writer’s idea of how one might try to go about “cloning” a person in “Cyteen” by C.J. Cherryh. In the novel, a person is cloned and then people attempt to raise the clone in the same environment. You won’t get any “hard” scientific knowledge out of the book, but it’s a good read. *

Indeed it was. When I bought it, I thought it was going to be like “The Boys From Brazil”, only SF. It wasn’t really, but did have some parallels.