Zeropoint

Great, then I'm good. I'm more of a Twilight and/or Zecora guy.

The difference would be that killing in self-defense, or in defense of an innocent third party, is generally recognized as ethically acceptable, and is perfectly legal. The complicating factors, of course, are that 1) it has to be done while the would-be killer poses a clear and present danger to life or limb, and 2) it's ethically (and possibly legally) fuzzy to use lethal force to save a life IF you've got a non-lethal takedown that would work just as well, and Batman has a lot of ways to do that.

I wonder how you'd say that in German . . .

Just the one?

A potent and highly addictive recreational drug, banned on most civilized planets and tightly regulated on the rest, due to its unusual ability to intoxicate and addict nearly every known sapient life form. A black market on a planet with no official trade routes is the only place where anyone can hope to move profitable quantities of the drug. Laboratory analysis shows that the drug in question is the active ingredient in catnip. Edit: I . . . almost took it seriously.

Everything's better with Lovecraft!

There are 10 kinds of people: Those who understand binary, those who don't, and those who know about ternary.

Pinky and Blinky have stated that their current situation is "a good gig" that they don't plan on leaving. Clyde could not be reached for comment.

Well, right now, you're not allowed to go to space unless you're quite fit, so that wouldn't be a problem.

It's a rather obvious joke, but: One is about a bunch of people opposing an evil and insane clown after something terrible happens to their homeland. The other is a video game.

Well, as far as evil dictators go, he's at least got competence and style going for him.

After many years of using the Lego G-Man as my avatar, I have decided to switch it up. I wanted something that would express my opposition to Nazis, and . . . well, "America" just doesn't convey that message any more. Forward unto victory, comrades.

This seems appropriate for this site, given our comic-book roots:

It's obviously working better than the Martian defense grid; that one seems to let about half the things through.

I wasn't talking about "what the Bible says Jesus said". I was talking about "what Christians in the US believe." We recently had a widely publicized event (I'm sure you've heard of it) in which the Christians of the United States stood up in great numbers and declared in one voice that the person who best represents them is Donald Trump. You can point to the Bible. Great. I'm pointing to your fellow believers and what THEY say. Maybe you should be telling THEM "what He actually taught."

Yep, that sounds like a perfect example of Christianity as practiced in today's world.

You're asserting that continuous existence is required for the continuity of identity, but haven't demonstrated it. In stark contrast to your lead block example, in my hypothetical scenario, if someone teaches a fact to yesterday you that has been replaced, replacement today you will know the fact. By your lead block example, this would seem to argue FOR today you being the same person as replaced yesterday you. As you said yourself, if yesterday you and today you weren't the same person, then changes to one wouldn't affect the other.

I'm starting to wonder whether the communication problem is on my end or yours at this point. Once again, in this hypothetical scenario, you are you right now, today, the same you that you are in actual reality. The only difference is that "someone else" has been killed and replaced with the current you, and the current you is going to be similarly replaced, but the current hypothetical you is unaware of these facts and believes that he/you has actually had the continuous existence that hypothetical current today you remembers (which is the same set of memories that actual real world today you has as you're reading this). I am NOT, repeat NOT asking how the dead bodies perceive the situation. I am not asking how the replacements growing in the clone tank perceive the situation. I am asking how ALIVE hypothetical today you's perceptions of the situation--indeed, how the ACTUALITY of the situation--would differ from alive real today you's perceptions and actualities.

It's pronounced sparti-kleez. You know, because Greek.

It really says something about Australia that you can make a living as a professional snake picker-upper.

Well, you're implicitly assuming that consciousness is a) entirely deterministic, and not chaotic in the mathematical sense. Assumption A is suspect because we know that the universe is probabilistic at the quantum level, and we can't rule out quantum effects being significant in the operation of the human brain. There's also the issue of radiation events taking place within the human brain (naturally occurring carbon-14, you know) which could (maybe? I don't know enough neuroscience) influence things at the level of individual neurotransmitter molecules. If assumption B is wrong, then even tiny discrepancies in inputs (from the environment you're reproducing for each clone) could lead to divergent behavior, even if they started out the exactly the same and no random events occurred. TL;DR: just because the two instances diverge later it doesn't necessarily follow that they're different now. I apparently didn't make myself clear; sorry about that. What I was proposing as a hypothetical is that you do NOT know that you have been and will be replaced, in which you go to bed secure in the belief that you'll sleep normally, just like you assume that you do in reality. However, in this hypothetical scenario, unknown to you, you have been and will continue to be replaced with a duplicate in your sleep frequently (and no, the fact that you've never caught a ninja sneaking in doesn't prove it's not happening. There are ways to check if someone's sleeping. If you don't believe that, then assume that this scenario also includes a sci-fi remote brain wave sensor or something). I'm asking you to consider this question: how, in principle, would your life be any different in this scenario? Obviously, in reality nothing can be done without leaving evidence, but for the sake of the hypothetical, you've been replaced by someone capable of covering their tracks beyond your ability to detect any interference. Again, in the hypothetical, you've been replaced at least several times, and will be replaced again in the future, but you have NO forensic evidence to suggest this. I simply ask, what would be different about you in that case? How would the you of right now in the real world differ from you in the hypothetical world? Would there be any significant difference? (and no, just repeating "I'd be dead and it would be a clone" isn't what I'm looking for.) Would there be ANY difference? Is it true that "a difference that makes no difference IS no difference"?

They'd never be aware of any difference.

Okay, so, how do you know this hasn't been happening every time you sleep, and the current "you" is only as old as the last time you woke up? How do you know it won't happen again the next time you sleep? And more importantly, how would it make any difference in your life if this were the case? No, I'm not; someone under surgical anaesthesia is not conscious. There is no thinking, no response to stimulus going on. The higher brain functions are suspended. I agree that complete brain death does not occur . . . but why does that matter? If my brain WERE completely shut down during surgery, and then started back up with no ill effects, would THAT mean that it was a different person waking up in the recovery room?

I'm a gun owner and a firearms fan (although I don't get out shooting as often as I'd like, for various reasons). I don't have a concealed carry permit, because I honestly don't feel like I'm that likely to be in a situation where I'd need one. I know you can't predict when something might happen, but I just don't feel the fear for my safety. I don't think that allowing concealed carry without a permit is really a good idea. A lot of gun owners are . . . well, right-wing bigoted assholes who would LIKE an excuse to kill one of the "wrong sort of people", or at least put effort into looking that way online. I don't feel like those people should be encouraged to have guns with them all the time. It's a little weird being "left" politically (by America's standards, anyway) but also liking guns and gun rights.

People make a big deal about continuity of consciousness without stopping to reflect that we already don't have it. Do you ever sleep? Were you conscious then? Hypothetically speaking, if you had died in your sleep and been replaced with a clone with your memories, would you have noticed? I once had some surgery that included general anaesthetic, and the stuff they used prevented me from committing anything to long-term memory for a short time after they administered it and before I lost consciousness. My memories simply cut off at a point in the operating room. I woke up later with some "missing time" including a short period of time when I was conscious that I don't remember; a situation very similar to what Clone Tagon is in, in those strips. The only difference is that pre-surgery "me" and current "me" are tied together by an unconscious body, while Tagon's world-line is physically discontinuous. So: me from five minutes ago and me right now are tied together by a continuously conscious me, as far as I can remember. Full continuity of memory and full continuity of consciousness. Me from yesterday is tied to me right now by a sleeping "me", whose brain was still doing something, even if it wasn't performing the full consciousness process. Full continuity of memory, at best partial continuity of consciousness. Pre-anaesthetic me is tied to me right now by a body with the higher functions shut down hard; there was no dreaming, no memory processing, just low-level autonomic functions. Incomplete continuity of memory, no continuity of consciousness. <gap in example spectrum> Tagon right now is tied to Tagon of four months ago by dying and being restored from a backup. Slightly less complete continuity of memory, no continuity of consciousness. It's not immediately clear to me why we should say that post-death Tagon is NOT the same person as before, while post-surgery me IS the same person as before.