Perfect replication of a person threatens selfhood and moral identity.

Evidence

Saramago’s novel finds Tertuliano Maximo Afonso watching a film in which an actor appears to be physically identical to him. The investigation into the double escalates into a moral and metaphysical crisis. The book is one of the great novels of unauthorized likeness and prefigures contemporary debates about deepfakes, voice cloning, and the right of publicity. — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 2035

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Rothman on right of publicity and to the reader’s AI/identity research thread. — connects to: Identity functions as a costume adaptable to context.; the MOC “The Self That Stumbles: Ego, Pride, and the Recognition Economy”
• FICTION: A doppelganger premise worth borrowing: the ordinary discovery that an unseen actor is one’s exact copy.

Broader Connections

• Identity functions as a costume adaptable to context. #qualifies (0.45)