silentassassin264 wrote...
Goneaviking, let us examine a though experiment here. Lets say you create a robotic body and before you find a way to "digitize" your thoughts. On your death bed you upload all your memories, experiences, and everything that makes you...you into that robotic body and then of course die. The robotic body then awakes. The question is, "Is the robotic body you?" My answer is absolutely yes. All we are is a collection of thoughts, experiences, and memories. If that is moved to the bot and it starts living, it is essentially you moving yourself into another body. The Rachni have a genetic memory that passes down to the next. That means that those psychopathic omnicidal rachni memories, experiences, and thoughts transfered to that Rachni Queen. She is the essence of those murderers transferred to a new body thus why I called it a reincarnation.
If you disagree with the crux of my argument, that our thoughts, memories, and experience define us, then I am not going to convince you but I am not changing from my argument. The problem with this is seeing as genetic memory and uploading brains is not actually in existence, it cannot be proved either way so you just have go with your interpretation of life. Also, the Rachni queen nor philosophy really have to do with this.
Okay, let's give your thought experiment its due. Let's look at some of the things that define Goneaviking.
Biological imperative. If Roboviking (RV) no longer has to eat or sleep, no longer gets pleasure from (or presumably the biological imperative to seek) sexual gratification or suffers from chronic migraines then is it really me? All of those imperatives form a huge part of my personality and determine my choices and actions. If I know longer eat then I will almost certainly lose my cultivated appreciation for Uyghur cuisine, I'd no longer spend hours in my favourite restaurants with friends enjoying those spices; if I no longer had habits like that to support would I even bother to work anymore? I don't enjoy it, dealing with the beareaucratic nonsense and petty despots is hard enough when I need to make sure I've got food in the fridge, but if that's no longer an issue why shouldn't I tell my boss that she can take my job and insert it into the orifice of her choice?
I've had chronic migraines since I was 13 and it's been a major influence on my lifestyle. It determines my sleeping cycle, my diet, how often I upgrade my glasses and how long I spend in the sun. If that's no longer an issue then the constraints that have been such a crucial part of my identity for the last 20 years become irrelevant and my psychological framework changes to accomodate the new options.
Metaphysics. If there is an afterlife, or if reincarnation is a factual occurrence then what impact will having my personality uploaded into a mechanical body have on that process? My guess is that it would have no effect, if I have a soul it would pass onto whatever fate it was due anyway and if I were to reincarnated that would happen regardless as well. Meanwhile RV would still be there doing whatever it is that RV does.
If my soul leaves this world or is reborn in another form then that would imply that RV isn't truly me however advanced the body and programming.
Societal expectations. How society reacts to individuals and what it expects of them is a pretty big factor in determining the personality and behaviour of it's members. Would RV have the same rights as me? Would my marriage still be legal? Would RV be able to remarry to a new partner? Given that gay marriage isn't legal where I live I suspect machine marriage would be a tough sell for activists.
Would RV still be entitled to vote? Could he retire and collect a pension when he reached my retirement age? Would the clock be reset? Would RV be denied that option for virtue of not being human?
What about my congregation? Would my religion accept RV as a practitioner? Could RV go on pilgrimage and would his fasting have any meaning given he no longer required food and drink? If he was no longer accepted by his community what impact would that have on RV's beliefs and personality?
I think there would be too many changes that would absolutely affect the personality and behaviour of Roboviking whether as a direct result of the physical process, or as a reaction to RV's new and different place in society to really consider him to be me, and I think that his awareness of those changes would mean that he would be self-consciously be aware that we are not the same being regardless of continuity of memories and emotions.
If the soul does exist, and I have no idea whether it does, then Roboviking is certainly not Goneaviking. But that's a matter of personal faith.
***
As for how this ties into the general discussion: Morinth isn't just who she is, she is what she is as well. I don't just mean because she's an Ardat-Yakshi I mean that we are the results of the choices that we make regardless of why we make them.
She didn't need to become a serial killer, she didn't have to enjoy hunting and manipulating people to their agonising deaths. Even if her conditions was removed from her she'd still be the product of centuries murder, of being chased and self-imposed isolation. Those were all her choices and she's responsible for all the deaths that she's caused because every one of them was her decision.
Morinth isn't a villain, and untrustworthy, because she's a genetic aberration or because she's hated and feared by the rest of her race; she's a villain because she chose to be one regardless of whether that's how she sees herself.
That's what defines us. Not our biology, not our memories, but the choices we make in response to them.
Retour en haut
