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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 1, 2025

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How would you feel if we could achieve a 1 to 1 The Prestige style copy where the copy believes they're the real one? I know hand waving getting there has real 'draw the rest of the owl' energy but I'm interested in your answer anyway.

Sounds horrifying? He'd love my wife as much as I do, be as attached to my entire life as much as I am, and think I'm the fake?

How doesn't this end with one of us dead, or feeling cucked for the rest his life?

I don't know if it's a mark of emotional health or the opposite, but I would love to have another me around the place. Like anyone, I spend lots of time in my own company anyway, I would expect me to understand me better and cooperate with me better than anyone.

Would you also love letting them have a go at your wife?

It's not relevant right now, and my feelings might change once it is, but I don't see why not. It's me. Being jealous of yourself seems silly. Especially since I know the other me wouldn't be jealous either, so it's not like I need to worry about him going behind my back. I am the one person in the world I genuinely, absolutely trust.

As long as you can't see the world through his eyes, hear it through his ears, be aware of his every thought and feeling, and directly control what he does, he's not you.

Not me in the 'I would happily commit suicide because I'll still be alive' sense, but me in the 'exactly the same in every way' sense. Different consciousnesses but otherwise identical. And I would feel love and warmth towards him because it's the closest possible relation you can have with someone.

You might worry about divergence over the next 10, 20, 50 years but even then it would be like having a very identical twin.

Not me in the 'I would happily commit suicide because I'll still be alive' sense, but me in the 'exactly the same in every way' sense.

...and also in the "I'd let another man shaft my wife" sense. I can sort of understand feeling the same kind of affection you'd feel upon running into a lost twin brother you never knew existed, but you're clearly taking it to a point to a point that is beyond my understanding.

Divergence has nothing to do with it, you're just operating under a framework that's completely alien to me.

Fair enough. I haven’t had an intimate relationship and it may just be that I don’t understand how visceral jealousy can be.

I’m also used to ‘projecting’ myself - I have written dialogues with myself to make decisions or talk through problems.