The Perfect Clone

[Dark Ronin]

After reading a thread I've decided to be more original. The only problem is that most anything original actually belongs in another forum. Anyway here goes.

I recently did an experiment with flatworms. They have eyespots that detect light and use those to stay away from light. My class trained those worms to follow light, something flatworms would never usually do. Then we blended them all up and fed them to other flatworms who didn’t like light. Those flatworms began going towards the light. This is a fairly common experiment, but it made me think. Their brain structures are simple (if you can even call it a brain) so just eating others can make them change their behavior.

We also know that everything we learn, every thought we have, is a physical change in our brains; neurons making new connections, losing old ones, or just a firing of them. The only other influence on who we are and how we act is hormone levels.

My question sorta relates to cloning. We can make clones, but they will grow differently. What they will have in common is basically every physical feature. So assuming you had a clone mimic the original person’s diet, you could essentially have the same exact person, if you were to rearrange the neurons in that person’s brain. I know it sounds a little far fetched, but it seems completely plausible. All we would need is a better understanding of how the brain is arranged.

So then would it be possible to have a perfect clone? I don’t think it would be impossible for someone to raise a genetic copy of himself then physically reorganize their brain through surgery and essentially have a younger healthier version of that person.

Ok so I took some of the originality out of it by bringing up cloning, but it’s really the only popular example I can come up with. I’m hoping the focus can be less on cloning and more on the brain.