The Best Things I've Seen Recently

[sanspoof]

The best metatalk thread (about transporters); the best Todd Alcott post (about how Darth Vader is totally gay for Boba Fett); the best new Ang Lee trailer (WW2 Shanghai); the best dinosaur skull cast collection, the best Transformersthemovie post.

Comments

[jwgh]

Regarding the transporter thing, james_nicoll pointed out to me at some point that, in the Star Trek universe, a lot of doctors seem to have an aversion to being teleported.

[sanspoof]

I have completely noticed that! I generally figured it to be a 'humanist' sort of thing; they all seem to have a certain measure of the 'common sense' approach, which I guess is... how Gene Roddenberry thought of doctors? I don't know.

[jwgh]

Also, one thing I like about debates regarding the nature of consciousness and identity (which the teleporter debate plays into nicely) is that eventually each side accuses the other of dualism. Although I don't think that happened in this particular debate (although I only got halfway down before I got distracted by other things).

For that matter, maybe people should start accusing each other of dualism in the Darth Vader/Boba Fett discussion, although it is hard to see how that discussion can be improved on. (There's even a nifty reference to the Star Wars Christmas special!)

[sanspoof]

I don't think anyone said that explicitly, but there was an accusation of believing in a soul.
Honestly I think it's about continuity of electrical activity in the brain.

Maybe the droids can be dualist. Uh.

[diaryarena]

You're just saying that because of the Captain Scarlet reference.

[diaryarena]

oh man those posts by "flabdablet" were great; finally reducing the "BUT I'LL DIE IF I'M TELEPORTED!" argument to its ridiculous core: how much of yourself has to go through before you're not you any more? OH JUST THE BRAIN-MEATS? HA HA LAME. seriously fun.

[sanspoof]

Dang it, thanks for losing my comment, livejournal.
Anyway, I was saying that I liked his posts because they brought the concept closer to the 'brain replaced slowly, bit by bit' concept rather than the normal transporter one.

[logos_ponos]

Oy, don't have time to read through the thread, but mklee, some friends and I had a long discussion about teleporters, and I'm still convinced that, given the Star Trek notion of transporters, you definitely die while another instance of you is created at the other end. That instance may carry on as normal, as though your memories and the new instance's memories were continuous, but your stream of consciousness, perception, feeling, etc. come to a definite end.

[sanspoof]

That was definitely one side of the thread. I am also of this opinion, and I think that there's no obvious way around this without somehow connecting the two ends, with current or some force-replicator or what have you (as in flabdablet's example and follow-up).
In this case, there's always a connection, whether simulated or normal, between two parts of the body on either side of the transport, which keeps your brain's electrical impulses going and thus keeps you conscious continually, even if by the end you've replaced your entire body multiple times by jumping back and forth.