To Satiate Your Curiosity, Here’s What Might Happen If You Clone Yourself

Science fiction stories have piqued the curiosity of most of us in many ways. Scientists have shown us that what once seemed like a dream could become possible. Today, with technological advances, those who grew up watching movies like Star Wars have testified to how many predictions like holograms now exist. And while we still wait for many inventions to come true, we can predict the future has more to say than what we have already seen.

We at Bright Side have been curious about what would happen if we cloned ourselves. You don’t need to wait any longer to find out because we put together some interesting facts that would finally satisfy your curiosity. If you want to meet your clone, here’s what it might be like.

1. Your clone is likely to look different than you.

If what you expect is an identical copy of yourself, you may have to invent another way to do this. In practice, your clone would start as a baby. Despite what movies show, it’s not as if you walk through a cloning portal where you get the perfect clone with your actual features. So, as time progresses, and you age, you and your clone would never have perfectly matching appearances.

In addition, there is another factor called gene expression that makes having a twin clone even more difficult. For example, despite being from the same mother, the twins’ genes respond differently. They may or may not be active. So the odds of having an identical clone is like flipping a coin.

2. You’d be lucky if your clone made it after birth.

Scientists have shown that the cloning of large mammals brings difficulties. In 1996, scientists took a big first step in cloning when they were able to bring Dolly the sheep to life from an adult cell. However, Dolly suffered from early-onset osteoarthritis and died young, at just 6 years old.

Other companies have tried to duplicate mammals, but the result is similar. Rudolf Jaenisch from MIT has stated that most of the cloned animals initially seem fine, but end up developing health issues.

3. Your clone might have a deformation.

The cloning process can interfere with normal genetic function, which can lead to abnormalities. In 1999, a study published in The Lancet explained the case of a calf clone that could not survive 7 weeks of life due to iron deficiency. Scientists found that the lymphatic system almost did not develop.

Even when cloning copies of DNA, gene expression is directly affected and could eventually lead to errors at any time. Dr. Rudolph Jaenisch has explained that the natural development process of a living creature, which normally takes months, condenses to reprogram in minutes, causing errors to simply pile up.

4. There’s a chance you would have a devil clone.

The chances of the world being destroyed by a devil clone are low, but never none. Cloning people has proven difficult because of the way human sex cells are built. So, to make your quest for cloning possible, gene-editing technology could be needed to alter these cells to make them easier to work with. But all of the genetic changes made here have a strong chance of being passed on to your clone’s offspring.

Therefore, if some catastrophic mistake occurs during the process, such as a mutation in psychopathic personality traits, this characteristic would become permanent for future generations.

5. Get ready to have more than just one clone.

You may be able to have a clone of yourself, but also a clone of your clone. It depends on the methodology used, but making a clone may require implanting 2 clones into a female womb. In humans, the easiest way to clone is by applying the traditional method where a fertilized embryo is divided, like what happens with identical twins, and both embryos are implanted in a surrogate uterus.

In conclusion, you may have to make room to have twin clones.

6. We all might live under the doppelgänger effect.

If you’re lucky enough to successfully pass through the second generation of clones, it could unlock a new problem and lead to a wave of mistaken identities. A possible doppelgänger effect can occur when people would be convinced they saw someone when they were actually a clone. So in the future, identity theft could escalate to a new level.

7. It would be possible to reach an unlimited heritage of the same genetics.

Of course, there are several barriers to overcome before reaching this point, but apparently, it would be possible to create clones indefinitely. Researchers in Japan managed to reproduce 26 generations of mouse clones from a single individual. This showed that cloning lines can be extended without limits, and an exact replica of oneself can be extended for several generations.

8. Raising the dead would no longer be just part of a movie plot.

If you saw the movie, Frankenweenie, you probably can relate to the thrill of bringing a beloved pet back to life. Cloning could make this possible. There is still a lot of work to be done in terms of ethics and law, but if consent can be given before death, it would be possible to return a version of the deceased person as a clone.

9. Someone could clone you without notice.

Have you ever dreamed of cloning your favorite celebrity? Well, this could be possible, but probably illicit. All that is required is the collection of some biological material, such as hair or skin cells. But since there is no consent, it is highly illegal.

10. You might be able to choose body parts to clone of yourself and not your entire body.

If having an exact copy of yourself sounds scary, you might be able to choose a body part to clone instead of your whole self. There is a concept called therapeutic cloning that focuses only on the cloning of body parts. This technique can be used to grow any type of organ or tissue.

For debilitating diseases, organ cloning could mean becoming your own identical donor and, in theory, having less or zero chances of your body rejecting it.

What are your thoughts about cloning? Would you like to meet your clone twin if possible? Share your comments with the community!