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This is like the thought experiment around teleportation.

What if the way to teleport was to make a copy of you at the new location, and then disintegrate the old you.

What has happened here, esp. wrt. consciousness? Is the copy really you? Is the old you OK with being disintegrated? What if the old you escapes, are there now two of you, and what does that mean? etc.

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Start Trek: the Next Generation explored exactly this scenario. https://youtu.be/geMGo2P94j4

This episode has one of my most memorable Riker lines:

If he had gotten off the planet instead of me, don't you think he would have made the same choices that I made?

I always felt this line showed how disconnected Riker was about the situation. As if there actually were two of him on the planet before the transporter accident, and it was left to random chance which one of those two it was that left and which one stayed.

I think Riker here was saying, you're getting into a relationship with someone who didn't put his career ahead of you back then, but he might do it in the future.

You may enjoy this comic: http://existentialcomics.com/comic/1

Great comic! Thanks!

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