Clone Duplicate to fake death

Use this forum to discuss the April 2020 Book of the month, "Project Tau" by Jude Austin
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Re: Clone Duplicate to fake death

Post by Nujudee »

DNA settings don't usually affect physical structures especially the bones and joints.
Well, it's a novel right?
Thanks a lot for an honest review.
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Jackie Holycross
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Post by Jackie Holycross »

I was wondering how you can tell the difference between a clone and the original human. I mean, Kalin is basically brainwashed to believe he is the clone for a while. How would he be able to prove it?
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Post by mariana90 »

Jocelyn Eastman wrote: 13 Apr 2020, 19:14 If that’s the case though, why make women go through pregnancies anymore? They could just have wombs for mothers and basically automatically grow babies for couples? Ok I know that went off on a tangent, but it just popped into my mind. If the technology is there to clone, surely it’s there to gestate a baby.
Well, it's very different technology haha. We have the technology to clone, but not to gestate a baby. Inserting some DNA strands into the empty nucleus of a cell is not at all equivalent to creating a living structure to sustain and grow a baby. We are not in the Matrix yet :P
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Post by ZettieOby »

The clone will not have such injuries since it was not coded into the DNA.
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Post by kdstrack »

I have no doubt that scientists could produce a clone and use it to stage a fake death. These scientists were serious thugs who took the time to invent a way to keep family and authorities from searching for Kalin.
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Post by rjohnston815 »

That's a great question. I wondered about that as well and asked the author about the factual science used when writing. There is very little actual science behind the book as cloning is not a science that has a lot of information. That all said, I assume that the clone would have been the perfect reproduction of Kalin, which is also what made the cremation necessary. In addition to the issue with the organs, he would not have had any imperfections caused during living a life... Just my guess....
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Post by kljrox »

I don't think just because the clone had Kalin's DNA it automatically had all of the flaws or scars of life. The DNA would be the same as when Kalin was born, that's why the mole is there. Kalin was born with the mole.
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Post by Zoe Luh »

I think if a close enough inspection was done then they would be able to tell that it's a clone of Kalin. But without a very close inspection then they probably wouldn't be able to tell.
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Post by Melissa Breen »

I'd imagine a clone would be the same visually but no they wouldn't have any fractured bones or scars or anything, but an autopsy wouldn't be looking for cues like that so I guess it would work just enough to fake a death
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Post by evraealtana »

JudasFm wrote: 11 Apr 2020, 09:20
tanner87cbs wrote: 11 Apr 2020, 01:16 To me this was a plot hole. If we take the facts of how quickly the body would start breaking down. I don’t think there was enough time to get it off the space station then to the planet. Let alone stage the death and account for the time for the body to be found and taken in.
zhenya_reads wrote: 11 Apr 2020, 07:58 That does sound like a plothole! I would agree with everything everyone else said. Or maybe Mason had enough power to silence everyone? But then again - it was specifically stated that on the planet, that Kalin was from, they cared a lot about their people and would probably have looked into it.
Okay, I'm sneaking in to close this plot hole ;) Just the plot hole; I'm not butting into the discussion itself.

It's established very early on (P19-20) that the lab is only a part of the station, and that many college students - Kalin included - often go to the public area to shop and watch movies (Like most space stations, Project Tau – or whatever its official designation was – had numerous entertainment facilities, and Kalin knew he wasn't the only student who went to the thirty-screen cinema there from time to time.) so we know that it doesn't take long for people to go from the planet to the space station.

We also know from Dennison that the clone will die naturally in a very short space of time. ("A rush job like this will be dead in a few hours, but to be honest, I don't see that posing much of a problem.") However, just because it's going to die doesn't mean it's going to decay on the spot; a clone that's been dead for two days is going to present identical stages of decay and rigor mortis to a natural human that's been dead for two days.

An autopsy would definitely reveal something amiss, which is why Mason gives the order to shoot the clone; if the cause of death is clearly determined, there's no need for an autopsy and nobody would notice anything strange. Nor would there be any external signs of organ failure, since the clone was killed before any of the organs had time to fail. The same goes for an investigation: the people on Kalin's planet would have looked into it, but being several billion kilometers away means there isn't a great deal they can realistically do. (Not giving anything away here, but this also forms a minor plot point for the sequel :P )

We know from the ending that GenTech has its own individual shuttle bay, so once the clone is dead, transporting it off the space station isn't going to be an issue at all; it's not like they have to smuggle it out via public transport ;) All they have to do is shoot the clone, take its body down to the planet after dark, and dump it somewhere.

Total time required (including travel time there and back): not officially stated, but taking all the above into account, we can call it about 90 minutes :)

Since the body would decay at a normal rate, it doesn't particularly matter to Mason when it's found, as he knows there'll be no autopsy and therefore nothing to link it to GenTech. He has no power or authority outside of his own lab (and, some would argue, not a great deal within it either ;) )
Thank you for your thorough and thoughtful commentary. This helps a lot.
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Post by Lia A »

I think that the clone will only match in DNA and appearance (not including scars). It may be enough to fake it. However, this is a sci-fi/fantasy book, so many things are possible.
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Post by rahilshajahan »

IchbineinBerliner wrote: 07 Apr 2020, 16:14 B. Creech is right. No, the clone would not have the broken bone. It is only the DNA that is an exact copy. Also, if Kalin Taylor had any dental work done, such as teeth filled or pulled, the clone would also not have identical dental records. The authorities could just say that DNA matching is the definitive test, and then no one would ask these inconvenient questions.
That is true with the current technology we have. But in the book, there's no mention of any problems in Kalin's skeletal or dental structure. Also, in the novel, the cloning process says that they had to use organs they grew themselves, so it raises the question of whether they clone the human body and later fit the organs. The technology explained in the book is a bit weird but its happening in 3900s on a different planet. Its hard to relate it to the science we know.
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Post by Amy Luman »

I really don’t know, but doesn’t DNA carry everything about a person? Or is it just physical and emotional things a person was born with? Surely, it couldn’t account for an improperly healed injury, as you suggest, could it? And aren’t autopsies only done if foul play is suspected?
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