Forever Reincarnation Project

*"It all seems a bit... Ship of Theseus."*
―The Seventeenth Doctor, *Before It's All Over*

The **Forever Reincarnation Project** was one of the more successful attempts at immortality on Valcaya.

## History

The people of the planet Valcaya had what could almost be described as a culture-wide obsession with immortality for a while. Methods involving preservation of bodies were generally unsuccessful, but a method was eventually discovered to copy a Valcayan mind into binary data with minimal errors. This revolutionary process became the backbone of dozens of competing methods for immortality. Some involved storing the minds as they were on computers, allowing them to churn away and consume data they were allowed access to. Others transferred minds into robots or similar, so people could continue to participate in society in a meaningful way. The Forever Reincarnation Project, however, purchased an experimental cloning laboratory and ran tests on placing Valcayan minds *back into* bodies.

The process proved very successful, and many Valcayans took the risk and were "reincarnated". One early adopter was Sophie Ramorr, who continuously took advantage of the process for seven generations until Valcaya's demise due to a supernova. (TV: *Before It's All Over*)

## Process

### Method

When nearing the end of a person's life, they could sign up for the project and their DNA would be sampled and duplicated. This would be used to grow a clone of the subject in a stimuli-free environment. When the subject thought it necessary, a digital copy of their mind would be made and stored. After the subjects death, the clone would be retrieved and the digital copy of the mind reinserted into the clone using very experimental technology. The clone would then, in theory, have the full set of memories of the original subject, and could continue from where the original left off. (TV: *Before It's All Over*)

### Drawbacks

The process worked, most of the time. However, as with anything this experimental and with this many points of failure, there could be catastrophic consequences for the clone. For one, the cloning sequence was not a finalised product. Errors in growing could lead to malformed clones, which would be disposed of. The mental aspect was far from perfect too, and could produce a far from perfect copy. At first, the brain has enough of an error-correcting process for this to be a negligible issue, but after a mind was copied several times in a row the issues would be magnified, creating a vastly different person to who originally went in generations prior. A good example of this would be Sophie VII. (TV: *Before It's All Over*)

## Location

The project was set up in an experimental cloning lab, floating above Valcayan capital city Thiza. The lab was bought after the experiments taking place there were abandoned, after the head scientist simply lost interest. This was a common theme among large-scale projects on Valcaya, so much was already available that boredom was a serious killer of creativity and science. (TV: *Before It's All Over*)

## Ethical Debate

Many Valcayans were upset about the use of clones. Complaints about the fact that they stay alive but in a mindless trance while the original subject was living life were the main topic, focusing on how long the clone had to wait before even having the opportunity to live (often over a decade, many subjects were overly cautious). The scientists behind the process responded by emphasising that since the clones were in a completely stimulus-free environment from "conception" to the mind transfer, this was a moot point, but activists simply stated that this was arguably worse.

There was also much concern about whether or not the clone counted as the same person, and if so at what point that became a ridiculous thing to argue. As much as the memories of the first clone seemed close enough to count, after six or seven generations that classification became slightly more tenuous. The Seventeenth Doctor remarked that it seemed "a bit ship of Theseus". (TV: *Before It's All Over*)

1. ↑ Thiza housed many floating buildings, built to show off more than anything. This, however, was unnecessary as the standard of living was so high, anyone could commission one.