There are infinite clones of Anthony. When each one “dies”, another one takes its place. Each clone learns its personality and demeanor from the environment in which it surrounds itself with and interacts with. The powers that be assess the world Anthony interacts with and how his personality develops based on that, and use the assessed information to create the newer and, in their eyes, more refined Anthony. However, Anthony becoming a permanent, fully developed human is far too dangerous, so when one Anthony becomes too sentient, the powers that be make it self destruct and replace it with another Anthony the following day. In other words, Anthony has “died” hundreds of times within the span of 20 years. All this until they finally create what they believe is the perfect, idealized Anthony, and that’s when it gets really shitty.