OK, so I've had similar discussions with people before (albeit without there being a Mr. DragonMonsterThing) and I've always gotten stuck in a certain thought: Life here on earth is today because of it's micro-evolution within the macro-evolution of the entire universe itself. Conciousness (in the view of science) developed within earth's evolution. So, would the artificial earth then evolve? It would need to right? In order for it to be an exact replica of the earth, it would have to go through all the various cycles, extinctions, movements, etc. of the real earth, for consciousness to exist there at all, and it would need to continue to evolve. That is also the only way for there to exist exact replicas of all the people on earth, since we are all just the latest 'stage' of our specie's evolution within the earth's evolution within the galaxy's, etc. Furthermore, in order for the earth itself to exist at all, Mr.DragonMonsterThing would have to recreate the big bang. Is he expecting me to assume all this is possible, and that he has the power to make it happen...?

Let's assume it is (why the fuck not?) here's another problem: in the artificial world, would an artificial 'me' have developed? It would seem absolutely necessary, since all the other events were in place for my ancesters up to my father and mother to meet at the exact right moment, have sex at the exact right moment, etc. What the fuck then? How could I possibly deal with an exact duplicate of myself? Would I tell the replica-me the story of how I got to his world? How would he (or more accuratly I) react? How would my mind and self-reflecting-consciousness react to another, outside, 'me'? Would it simply self-destruct, go insane, shut down because of it's own redundancy? It would be impossible to predict the consequences of 'me'/me duplicate consciousness interaction.

Problem #2: During the course of this earth's evolution it apperently became necessary to have a Mr. DragonMonsterThing come and destroy it. Now, if the fake-earth is a replica, wouldn't the same be true for that world as well? Would there then be a replica-Mr.DragonMonsterThing posing this question to the replica-me about a third replica-world, giving rise to a fourth, fifth, sixth... instantly infinate replica worlds would exist, where if I decide to do it, I would go to the new earth and find that it is going to be destroyed just like the one I left, an infinate number of times. If I choose not to go, the infinate replica-earth's have no use, and so (presumably) The Most High (or God, or Nature) won't need to pointlessly create them just to be destroyed.

So, (problem #3) if I chose to go to the new earth, would I then be responsible for the creation and destruction of all the 7 billion (or so) humans living on the replica-earth (since they wouldn't have been created otherwise)? not to mention all the animal/plant/undiscovered life as well. And since my decision will also be the decision of the replica-me's, giving rise to the infinate replica-earths, would I be responsible for the (literally) countless, infinate deaths of those infinate beings on those infinate earths? Do I really want that little blemish on my soul? Or do these infinate earths (and universes) already exist? If so, do I really have a choice at all if the 'me' on the earth just before this one chooses to come here to save himself? We'd be back to problem #1 if I choose to stay in that case.

Mr.DragonMonsterThing would have some serious answering to do if he came to me expecting a simple yes or no with a question that complex. He had better be ready to explain (in detail) all of these inconsistancies and be ready for the new contradictions that would arise from his answers. Otherwise, I would just tell him, that he is himself but a replica, I am a replica, all those I love are already replicas as well apperently, so do whatever the fuck you like. Then I'd go back to sleep and possibly have a nice, warm, wet dream as the world, and the infinate worlds all shoot to their firey deaths anyway.

hmmm, this sounds vaguely like Donnie Darko. unless I missed something, how would I know that I am the only one being saved. I guess that this would prove that there are other beings traveling from universe to universe. If all the universes are parallel, how do i know that another me is being asked the same question and when i get to this other pseudo-earth that the same thing isn't going to happen anyway later. i think i would just stay in that case.

Saying that makes me remember what I read about Doplegangers. About how you come apon an exact duplicate of yourself and you fight to the death. In this case I would be the doppleganger comming to the world of the artificials. But them being exact artificials of my world, they would see me as the duplicate. And If I really wanted my old life back I would have to get rid of the artificial me, or nothing would be the same. But I would never "want" to kill myself or screw up my own life. So I would leave the artificial me to live the life I never could, with the real me starting a new one. Which kind of defeats the purpose of making the world the exact replica of my own.



Mabey the same end of the world/dragon experience might happen to the artificial me. Thus making the same choice. Thus causing the infinity replica universe thing. But If I knew this then that would give me another reoson to take my original life back to try and get a second chance to stop the loop that might have started a long time ago. But since going to the universe of my choice not being an option, I could choose to die. But that would cause the permanent end of the Earth. So I guess the real question for me would be:
Do you want to end the world or hop from dying universe to dying universe for the rest of your life?

This is more complicated than I thought. :I

Assuming the "artificial" world is exactly the same as this real (well, let's assume it's real) world and assuming that an "artificial" me is inhabiting the "artificial" world with the exact experiences, thoughts, memories, and emotions I am experiencing and have experienced in the real world, I think I'll start telling myself to find "myself" when I join "myself" in the "artificial" world so I can then experience more in my life/"life" by being in two places at once.

I'd like to think that if presented with a duplicate of myself, my thoughts would run along the lines of questioning reality and our limited perception of it. But, really, my first thoughts would probably be, "Damn! Is that what I really look like?"

That's pretty funny. It reminds me of whenever I hear myself on an answering machine or on film in the background giving direction (I really hate that) it always surprises me how 'whiny' and strange I sound, I always expect my voice to sound as it does in my head. It's because of this that I never leave a message on someone's machine.

I wonder if I would discover other things about me by seeing 'me' from an outside perspective. Like: why do I blink so much? Why do my lips move that way when I speak? why did I think black looked good on me?

And if you met the replica 'you' and you both fell in love, would you then be gay (or lesbian)? If you had sex with 'you' would that technically be masterbation? You know, I would love to play a game of scrabble with 'me'. I would SO kick 'my' ass!!

The amount of quotation marks in this thread is starting to give me a headache.
Plus, when did we suddenly end up running into ourselves? This thread runs the risk of narcissistic overload...