Clones, and Qualifications

It's not controversial to say that Nanotrasen has a relaxed attitude to hiring clones. If a person achieves a doctorate, for example, and is then cloned, the memories and knowledge transfer to the clone. But is the clone viewed as equally accredited in the eyes of Nanotrasen?

Common sense would tell me yes. If, for example, a Chief Engineer is killed and cloned, the cloned copy is allowed to immediately resume working at their previous station. Does the same apply if there are clones of which the original is still alive? Is that even permitted technologically? We can't create mentally aware clones in game. Is that simply a mechanical limitation, or is that codified as a restriction of cloning that there can only be one living version at a time?

It's a restriction of safe cloning; flash-clones are possible, and are used by both the Syndicate and the Skrell; but they are generally prone to disease, genetic disorders, and are sterile.

Interesting to know.

Another question; are clones only produced at the same age as the person when they are scanned?

Again, mechanically, it seems to be the case. The clone of a Chief Engineer who got roasted in a plasma leak emerges as an almost perfect copy of the scanned original, except for the lethally massive burn damage. But outside the game, this would have implications. For example, all cloning will have achieved is the nullification of sudden and violent death. For example; a ninety year old man, when cloned, would produce a ninety year old man; all the memories of the clone would be up to and until the moment the original was scanned, and nothing after. A woman with severe heart disease would, when scanned, transfer that disease to the next clone of her that is created.

I'm not sure on the specifics in SS13, but isn't cloning the extremely rapid aging and development of cells along a seeded genetic blueprint? Is there no way to affect the age of the resultant clone, creating a 'younger you' with all the knowledge of a previously long, natural life? Does inhibiting the artificial aging process somehow affect the clones memories? Is it impossible to intervene in the cloning process to create a 'you, without that crippling disease', cleansing known harmful genetic abnormalities?

I would say that it is possible to control the aging, but it would likely be extremely hard to do and extremely dangerous/illegal; which is why we don't have 500 year old people on station.

Considering biomass is used during the clone production, how the process itself works and what the results are, I think this isn't exactly cloning. What you are really doing is producing a 3D print of the person. This is needed because of the way our brain functions, which is hardware, not software. You need to actually copy every neuron, down to the atom, to reproduce memories perfectly. The state of your body also represents some of your memories. Your hormone levels, your physiological cycles and your overall health. A lot of these, aside from the brain, contribute to define who and what you are. So it helps to reconstruct then as they were when you died. Something like this is very hard to do when actually 'growing' clones from embryo.

Considering this is copying, trying to reconstruct what they were like 20 years ago becomes a much, much more difficult and expansive task. Trying to reconstruct it from current state would require a lot more processing power and be potentially fatal or damage a clone. Or, you need to make and store physical clone so it can be used as a reference point. This, as well as remapping of the clones and similar technical issues would require a small fortune to support.

All of this makes aging prevention medicine a preferable option.

Considering this is copying, trying to reconstruct what they were like 20 years ago becomes a much, much more difficult and expansive task. Trying to reconstruct it from current state would require a lot more processing power and be potentially fatal or damage a clone. Or, you need to make and store physical clone so it can be used as a reference point. This, as well as remapping of the clones and similar technical issues would require a small fortune to support.

See, that makes the difference. I assumed the cloning process was just a hyper advanced form of what we call cloning today, where somatic cells are transferred into another egg cell, minus the DNA and nucleus, and the clone grows naturally in a surrogate. Only in SS13 the surrogate is a pod and the growth is accelerated. This is why I was struggling to understand how the state of a clone is managed, because the method of genetic splicing doesn't account for memory transference and the newly grown body would have lacked any afflictions that had been caused by purely environmental means, but is otherwise an exact genetic replica.

So, SS13 cloning is just cheating by knitting together biomass into a replica shape, down to the neurons at time of scanning. All the bodily tissue, diseases and all, with no sanitisation or interference. I imagine this is a quick and dirty version of cloning, but happens to be cheaper and more widespread than the more expensive and much more time consuming traditional method? Or is this is the only way that it works? It took humans another 500 years from where we are now to still fail, and only eventually succeed with the Skrells help and get 'clone bioprinting'.

So, SS13 cloning is just cheating by knitting together biomass into a replica shape, down to the neurons at time of scanning. All the bodily tissue, diseases and all, with no sanitisation or interference. I imagine this is a quick and dirty version of cloning, but happens to be cheaper and more widespread than the more expensive and much more time consuming traditional method? Or is this is the only way that it works? It took humans another 500 years from where we are now to still fail, and only eventually succeed with the Skrells help and get 'clone bioprinting'.

For the purposes of keeping the poor down, the cloning service isn't that cheap even through this method. Getting cloned after a car accident would most likely leave a common citizen in debt for next 30. It's only because NT has the highest efficiency experimental tech cloning tech on Aurora and other facilities that it's so easy.

The traditional cloning methods are still present and developed, but they aren't that useful for preservation of individuals past genetic testing and such. This is mostly because MMIs aren't sufficiently advanced to allow a direct consciousness transfer, from mind, to data, and then back to the clone's brain. Not that it would work that well, taking the nature of our brain into account. Vaurca can do it, but they have different physiology and their bodies are more cybernetic than anything else. The wizard... well... wizards can turn people's pumpkins into horse's heads.