Cloning around

Imagine if there was another you – same face, same body shape, same hair colour and maybe even the same outfit and accessories that are your favourites. Oh the fun that You and OtherYou could have, swapping stories about what it’s like to be you, giggling at the same jokes and revelling in your shared view of the world. And look, if that OtherYou can’t actually speak, well, perhaps that’s even better. Which is where a Japanese cloning factory (the ‘Clone Factory’) comes to the party.

I read about this in the DesignTaxi newsletter – apparently the Factory takes lots of photos from many different angles and then uses 3D printing technology to create OtherYou. And OtherPet, if you don’t find that too close to taxidermy. As you can see from these pics, the result is a little creepy, with an eerily lifelike face. Apparently, lots of women are using the Factory to clone themselves on their wedding day or some other foxy looking day, to preserve it for eternity. But I reckon when you’re a wrinkly old lady, riddled with arthritis and with your best years in the rear vision mirror, the last thing you’d want to see all day is the smug looking OtherYou On Your Wedding Day and her perfect young face.

Of course, the possibilities are endless – you could dress up OtherYou to find out what styles suit you, whether your bum really does look big in those jeans, or what you would look like as a Star Wars Stormtrooper.

You could also put OtherYou in the car so that you could drive in those pesky T2 lanes that require a passenger, or perhaps send OtherYou along to an event that you’re not really keen to attend, or even set OtherYou up to take Skype calls that you’d rather avoid (pretending you’ve lost your voice). Now that I think of it, this version of personal cloning is starting to sound pretty appealing…