'Build clones to relieve us from boredom'

Each week a global thinker from the worlds of philosophy, science, psychology or the arts is given a minute to put forward a radical, inspiring or controversial idea – no matter how improbable – that they believe would change the world.

Indian author and political commentator Salil Tripathi suggests having clones or avatars to complete all our stressful day to day tasks.

 “What we need are avatars that are compliant. They will do as they are told; they will obey. They will not think independently. They will be our selves without our brains.

They will go to government offices, post offices, consulates, and stand in the queue, and present our passports or identity cards - cloned, of course - and deposit forms, make payments, collect stuff for us.

They will comply and stay at home, and wait for the plumber who doesn't turn up on time; the delivery men and women of courier services which promise to come between 9 am and 5 pm and come at 6.00 pm. 

 They will have extremely limited vocabulary. They will say "Yes of course," when asked a question.

I think it is far better to have such clones, than to get stressed, get angry, get vengeful.   We need those clones, those avatars, to deal with this, so that we ourselves can do more important things in life, such as writing fresh status updates on our Facebook pages.”

 You can listen to Salil discuss his idea with novelist Rose Tremain  and activist Yvette Alberdingk Thijm in more detail on the BBC World Service programme The Forum, where you can also download more 60-second ideas.

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