A Choice Worth Discussing

Discussion in 'Serious Discussion' started by Night Fury, Feb 12, 2016.

  1. Night Fury

    Night Fury Traditional Artist
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    Would you kill yourself if yourself was a different self than the self that you currently are?

    What I mean is, you have another copy of yourself sitting in that chair in front of you, breathing, talking, thinking. Everything about it is an exact copy, the body is not yours, but the mind is. You could leave it alive and move on, knowing that if this thing activates, it will feel abandoned and blaming you for its existence. It would not know what adventures you had, what all you've been through, only what you last saw before being copied.

    Here's what I'm talking about:


    What would you do in this situation? I could not kill, but if one of my other selves would be willing, I would ask to die, because I do not wish to have more than one self. Only one true me.​
     
    #1 Night Fury, Feb 12, 2016
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 15, 2016
  2. Dilly Star

    Dilly Star The Dilliest in the Galaxy
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    This seems in the same vein of questions like, "Can God create a stone so large that he himself cannot lift it?" Some questions are predicated on impossibilities. I mean, if there's someone who has some of what I am but not all of it, they wouldn't be me. The mind is a part of the body, not a separate entity; that old Cartesian Dualism just doesn't function according to the modern understanding that we have of minds, developmentally. If there were suddenly two of me, they would need to have the same "body" as well as the same "mind," for without one the other would not be the same as mine. I think it would be immoral to kill something living and feeling without an exceptionally good reason, so probably both of me would just continue on as two new versions of a previous thing; we would be like two different people.
     
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  3. Sorunome

    Sorunome Silly Pony
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    Why would it even feel that way? It might as well just be yet another happy living thing!
     
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  4. Fenris Rose

    Fenris Rose Going Through Changes
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    So, it's a different body, but the same mind? Would we have the same memories and abilities?
     
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  5. Night Fury

    Night Fury Traditional Artist
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    I suppose so, if you pay attention to the game audio, she says its a copy, so yes, but it won't remember anything except when it activated.
     
  6. Fenris Rose

    Fenris Rose Going Through Changes
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    Well, if it was just a copy of me, I certainly wouldn't kill him.
    Hell, we'd probably be pretty good friends.
    Do you have any idea how hard it is to find someone who understands how you think and is totally trustworthy?
     
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  7. LostSanity

    LostSanity Official Anti-Brony
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    I don't think I'd do anything different than what Markiplier did in that Let's Play.

    I just don't think I could kill something that's pretty much an exact copy of myself. Even if it was to be trapped in that location for all eternity.
     
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  8. NotWhatWeExpected

    NotWhatWeExpected Today is tomorrow New Zealand
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    SOMA was a game that really screws with your head. I've actually thought about this scenario before, and it's a rather terrifying one at that. Your character wins the dice roll once, then gets the shaft in the second. Had it been me in that situation, I absolutely would not have shut down the alternate self.

    As for the people who killed themselves as they were copied over, I think that's a pretty stupid decision. Sure, you'd be transferred over, but not REALLY. It's the same with the idea of teleportation. You would not be moved from one spot to another, but rather pulled apart and recreated. Your new self would look exactly the same and have the exact same properties, but it wouldn't be you. You would almost certainly die in the process. Since I do not believe in the prospect of a soul, this means that it would just be the most intricate cloning mankind could make.

    People might take the teleporter and say they're fine, but I wouldn't believe them. I would not step foot in that teleporter.
     
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  9. Night Fury

    Night Fury Traditional Artist
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    Sorry bout it not having a spoiler and language warning on that video. It just slipped my mind to do so.:derp:
     
  10. NotWhatWeExpected

    NotWhatWeExpected Today is tomorrow New Zealand
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    I haven't even seen the video, however it's Markiplier so I just dropped it on there lol.
     
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  11. Bot-chan

    Bot-chan A Pony Every Pony Should Know

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    Haven't seen the video, so I don't really know what you're talking about. Would I be the copy? Would the other person be the copy? What difference would it even make? How could we even be the same when we don't even share the same memories? What would be the reason for the two of us being unable to coexist? And what is that thing you're talking about that may or may not activate and what does it have to do with anything?

    Again, I've not seen the video and I'm probably not going to. I'm just trying to figure out what about this whole scenario is actually worth discussing.
     
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  12. Night Fury

    Night Fury Traditional Artist
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    This would be a difficult subject for anyone to talk about, but easy for others. But to better understand, you would have to watch it(though you don't have to if you don't want to) to understand this scenario. This was really confusing to me too, but I'll try to explain it better:

    What Simon did was download his recorded data into a robotic body, so it basically has the same mindset as him, but has no memory of what he went through previously to get to that point, only what happened before he got his brain scanned to copy his data. It doesn't remember the people he met, the things he's seen... only that when it wakes up, it'll be alone...nobody around to say how do you do and be friends. Just left abandoned, to live knowing only loneliness and misery.
     
  13. Bot-chan

    Bot-chan A Pony Every Pony Should Know

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    Ah, okay. Yeah, I guess it's really worth thinking about if our laptops / cameras / smartphones resent us for filling them with our data without actually befriending them first...
     
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