Doctor Bechdel closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "You know," she said, "this problem should not be beyond our powers to solve."
Sitting on the other side of the laboratory bench was what could have been her identical twin. Indeed, the only difference was in what they were wearing. One was dressed in a singlet and skirt; the other was wearing a blouse and jogging bottoms. The Doctor Bechdel who was dressed in the singlet nodded in a agreement. "Exactly. As I created the quantum duplication process, it should definitely be within our capabilities to deal with.:
The blouse-wearing Doctor Bechdel's face coloured. "I think you mean the process I created." She glared at her twin with unconcealed hatred. It had only been half an hour since she (Most definitely her!) had proven the efficacy of quantum duplication. She had stepped into the one of the pods of the duplicator and - ! And now, instead of celebrating her success, she was having to debate existential philosophy with a mere copy.
The other Doctor Bechdel waved a hand towards the machine that dominated the laboratory. It had three, person-sized pods linked to each other by a maze of wiring, conduits and equipment racks. "Well, maybe you did create that monstrosity. After all, if I'd have designed it, I'd have made sure it was obvious which pod would contain the original and which pod the copy."
"Hah!" The first Doctor Bechdel (or so she thought of herself) pointed a triumphant finger at her twin. "If you were half the genius I am, then you would know that quantum indeterminacy is an integral part of the process! If - If! - I am the duplicate - which I'm not - then I'm an obvious improvement on the original!"
"You can be like that if you want to; make all the accusations you want to," the singlet-wearing Doctor Bechdel said. "But it's not going to solve anything. Our memories are identical - right up to the point one of us entered the pod. Even if we could find some difference between us, we'd just end up arguing over and over which one was the original. We need an independent person to adjudicate between us."
"An independent person who knows our deepest secrets?"
"Exactly."
The two Doctor Bechdels looked at each other, then turned to look at the quantum duplicator.
