Upvoted. If not 'merge' (hard), at least detect the duplicate and automatically add links to the previous discussions and save @RiderOfGiraffes from doing it manually. :)
I have a robot that used to do that, but it provoked an extremely strong negative reaction from a sizeable proportion of the community. I discontinued its use, and after some of the comments, I'm reluctant to bring it back.
It sounds useful, but I fear that new comments would be buried in the old comments, particularly if old comments retained their points in determining the ranking.