Who are you today?
What makes us who we are, the persons we claim to be. Aren’t our personalities just the electricity coursing our brains? State of mind.
I was always fascinated by stories about losing memory and becoming someone else. And the more sci-fi equivalent - stories of fake personalities.
Isn’t losing memory just like death? The person who was there is gone. And somebody else takes up the free shell. A new person. With his/her own memories and goals.
Isn’t then regaining old memories like destroying that new person?
If one could chose then who has more right to that body? To live life? The first one? Or maybe the nicer? The one we know better?
And what if the old personality was guilty of crime - is it inherited with body like mortgage?
In latest Torchwood episode they had this problem to.
Beth is a normal woman living normal life. She loves her husband and he loves her. But is all fake because Beth really is an evil alien commando sent to infiltrate and destroy humanity - pretty standard sci-fi theme, right? Just kill those evil bodysnachers. Jack really wanted to.
Beth however isn’t evil. She is fake, that’s true, but she is still a nice, loving person. She doesn’t want to kill people and destroy the world. Not that it would matter when the real alien persona takes over. Still, to Beth, alien’s wishes and goals doesn’t matter. She wants to live her life with her husband. She doesn’t want to take part in any of this. Doesn’t want to go away just because she is not real.
Isn’t Beth real? Does it really matter aliens invented her? After all she lived her life, had her goals, her own mind. She was made we evil intention and for evil purpose but that didn’t make her an evil person.
And the fact that she was made didn’t change the fact that she was a person.
The longer I watched the episode the more parallels between those aliens and cylons and especially between Beth and Boomer I saw. Beth is like Boomer - she believes she is the real girl until one day she learns otherwise. Her fate is what Boomer could’ve been if she was found out before the killing and if there was anyone like Gwen who would believe she was a person who could make her own choices and choose the other side. After all it’s all in your head. That belief that we are who we believe we are. It’s not the hardware that matters, it’s the software.
Too bad it always ends badly.
I was always fascinated by stories about losing memory and becoming someone else. And the more sci-fi equivalent - stories of fake personalities.
Isn’t losing memory just like death? The person who was there is gone. And somebody else takes up the free shell. A new person. With his/her own memories and goals.
Isn’t then regaining old memories like destroying that new person?
If one could chose then who has more right to that body? To live life? The first one? Or maybe the nicer? The one we know better?
And what if the old personality was guilty of crime - is it inherited with body like mortgage?
In latest Torchwood episode they had this problem to.
Beth is a normal woman living normal life. She loves her husband and he loves her. But is all fake because Beth really is an evil alien commando sent to infiltrate and destroy humanity - pretty standard sci-fi theme, right? Just kill those evil bodysnachers. Jack really wanted to.
Beth however isn’t evil. She is fake, that’s true, but she is still a nice, loving person. She doesn’t want to kill people and destroy the world. Not that it would matter when the real alien persona takes over. Still, to Beth, alien’s wishes and goals doesn’t matter. She wants to live her life with her husband. She doesn’t want to take part in any of this. Doesn’t want to go away just because she is not real.
Isn’t Beth real? Does it really matter aliens invented her? After all she lived her life, had her goals, her own mind. She was made we evil intention and for evil purpose but that didn’t make her an evil person.
And the fact that she was made didn’t change the fact that she was a person.
The longer I watched the episode the more parallels between those aliens and cylons and especially between Beth and Boomer I saw. Beth is like Boomer - she believes she is the real girl until one day she learns otherwise. Her fate is what Boomer could’ve been if she was found out before the killing and if there was anyone like Gwen who would believe she was a person who could make her own choices and choose the other side. After all it’s all in your head. That belief that we are who we believe we are. It’s not the hardware that matters, it’s the software.
Too bad it always ends badly.