No, this is not quite as dumb as it sounds.

Think of this situation, however unlikely it may be. You are in love with someone, and just pretend that this is possible if you are one of the people who do not believe in love. Now somehow, an exact copy of this person has been created. Nevermind which one was the original; they both have the exact same traits physically, emotionall, personally, and otherwise. Even down to a stupid little scar or an insignificant mole.

How would you choose between them?

who needs to choose? if we're in love, I could work out having both.

Not dumb at all; in fact the question whether uniqueness is the whole basis of identity is a very important one, especially when ever-advancing technology increases our ability to replicate things, genetic or otherwise.

It depends on the nature of your relationship, and the conceptions and expectations of love of both you and your lover.

If you believe love is a connection between two souls, then you would choose the original copy, since hers is the soul you fell in love with, and it cannot be duplicated.

If you view love more secularly, there are a couple options I can think of. The simpler one would be to chose the original, since the only difference between the two is that you actually spent time with the first. The other is you could refrain from dating/seeing them for maybe a year and let them pursue seperate lives in that time. Even if the clone was made to be a perfect match, mentally and physically, all experiences henceforth would be unique. In the time since the cloning, their personalities will have differed, even if only slightly, from each other. Then date them alternately and see if you prefer one over the other.

Since such a situation hasn't yet occurred, there's no way to really know the best way to go about it. We'll just have to wait until such conundrums occur and learn from trial and error.

For a long time, both cutting edge and mass-media sci-fi had us convinved that there would be a great humanization of machines in the near future... We were expecting to see semi-independant robots, AIs, semi-intelligent systems and all that sort. Instead we are seeing a great mechanization of Humanity.

I would enjoy the idea of having two women that were exactly the same.. I would ponder if -being clones- they would not share some telepathy.. enjoying one, and the other responding as well.. Hmmm, would that be empathy?? ~shrugs~ either way..
Or tell one something and the other, at the store or something, would know that you wanted it because you told the one with you!!

omg Dark tigg.... lol

since you cannot creat an exact clone, especially in terms of memory (no such thing as the sixth day), id find it very suspicious...

but, in the hypothetical... how would you know which is which? and, if there is no way of telling, why NOT work out a threesome? seriously... if you cant tell and they wont compromise... the only thing you can do is walk away from both since it would be an emotional crime to walk away from one and stay with the other.

Hey! I agree with errantrogue.... DUDE!

what? its a bad thing to agree with me? or just rare?

it's rare for me to wholehaertedly agree with you.

hehe if my theory were found correct.. a twosome Would(in a sense) be a threesome..*grins*

Actually, both my girlfriend and I found asd's the best of all given responses, if the toughest to adhere to given that you'd have to give them up for a year.

This is all based, of course, on the premise that people fall in love based on appearance rather than anything else

Feroluce--did you read the whole first post--the assumption is that they are exactly alike in EVERY way.

Ah yes but we are more than the sum of our parts

Our personalities are sculpted by our experiences not by genetics.

yes, i think it's about experience as well.

identical twin have the same genetic structure but they have different personalities. Id choose the original. the other, although we'd likely click would be a stranger at first - apart from the looks. i'm thinking if a clone of my boyfriend popped up. i definately go for the one i'm in love with now. i'd consider the other his brother.

the question, though, is if they were EXCATLY the same... physically, psychologically, memorywise... etc.

Also, I did state originally "nevermind which was the original being..." which discredits a couple of answers given as well.

nevermind? well that would be important to me, but in that case if i were to ignore it for some crazy reason, i don't know which i'd choose.

It would generally be important, but remember that this is a purely hypothetical situation. For the purposes of the question, it doesn't matter.