Blish's "Conscience" vs. Wolfe's "Fifth Head"

james.t.williams · 28 Dec 2005, 21:15 · from rec.arts.sf.written.2005.mbox

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From: james.t.williams at gmail.com
Subject: Re: Blish's "Conscience" vs. Wolfe's "Fifth Head"
Date: 28 Dec 2005 13:15:21 -0800
Message-ID: <1135804521.649021.27000 at o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
References: <1135781723.546189.19520 at g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <douf3o$bho$1 at news.datemas.de> <1135795018.842798.188130 at g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>

I have read "Fifth Head" several times, and I never saw it as
condemning cloning itself.

In the case of the story, an aberrant personality attempts to improve
himself through successive generations of clones. But improvement means
change, and I don't think he really wants to change himself. So he ends
up repeating the same mistakes, and never getting better.

Don't get me wrong- I am all for physical immortality. But I also don't
see the point of being physically immortal if you end up being
essentially the same person for all time.

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