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Okay, come on, Razengan. This thought experiment is not a difficult one.

I invent a machine that "scans" your body in such a way that I'm able to create a perfect replica of the state your body was in, nearly to the atom. Molecule, by molecule, the machine can rebuild your body, within a near infinitesimal margin of error.

I put you inside this machine, and scan your replica file, and then I save it to a massive storage device, and, when called upon I can rebuild that version of you whenever I want.

Now, after being successfully scanned, you exit the device. I blow your head off with a shotgun, and your headless corpse slumps on the floor. No witnesses.

Do you really think you'll come back to life, if I print out your replica from the file?




There is some fiction that touches on exactly that dilemma, and I love it. SOMA [0] being a prominent example.

As I said in other comments, once such technology is available, our laws and ethics will have to adapt to it one way or the other.

[0] http://store.steampowered.com/app/282140/




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