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srwu Mar. 19th, 2016 01:09 pm)
a_monetized_mind posting in srwu Mar. 19th, 2016 01:09 pm)
"Hah! I told you I was a main character!"
"...What are you even going on about."
Doomstar has been unusually cooperative, so she's been allowed some free wandering-accompanied by a guard with a gas mask and gloves, of course. She and Jen are meeting outside, chatting over some tea and snacks.
"It's not too important, Jenny. The important thing is, I might have a solution to your situation."
"Yeah, you mentioned that..."
"Well, I wasn't joking. Since the problem is genetic, just copying Julia's method of cheating death won't work, but there's nothing that says we have to use an organic architecture when copying your brain's processes."
"...I don't really follow."
"Basically, we'd use the nanobots in your blood to get a model of your brain, and then we'd run that model on a computer. So there'd be you, and an AI copy of you. The copy won't age or decay, and it could make backups of itself in case it got itself blown up like you keep doing."
"So if I let you experiment with my brain, I'd live forever."
Doomstar's smile fades. For once, the crazed razorgirl's facade slips away, showing the worry underneath.
"...No. A copy of you would live forever-from your perspective, you would still die the same way. And...the copy might not be exact. This is really untested stuff, and Julia spent more time on it than I ever did. Like, it might even come out to just be some sort of soulless sociopathic abomination. I could improve the quality of the copy with a destructive scan, but...I can't fix death. I can only let you leave something behind."
While Jen looks deeply into her tea, Doomstar reaches across the table to rest her hand on Jen's-but the courier brushes it off.
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Are you at least gonna do this right?
[So says the AI very concerned about this discussion and its implications regarding cyber-ethics.]
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[Roy's a welcome distraction from dealing with Doomstar, at least.]
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This... copy? Successor? Not sure what Lady Crackrock here'd call it, but it deserves to know what it's been made for, and have the freedom to decide what to do with itself.
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"the technical term is a 'fork'," whispers Doomstar in the back
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There's definitely gonna be a day I die, and Crackrock'll die and everyone else'll die, and it's pretty freaking unfair to be the only person who won't! That's unfair to the forks-
[Thanks Doomstar!]
-too! If they're gonna be different than you, let them! You wouldn't just... just pick up some random person on the street and dress them up like you with some weird shock collar to fry them every time they did or even think a different way you would, right? It's the same thing!
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[A yelling giant robot wins arguments fast.]
I won't-I won't force them to be like me, or anything!
Just...gonna leave it an option on the table.
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... But to tell ya the truth, I wanted to see how you'd feel about this since... you know, I think maybe I can help.
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[Cue hologram showing the waters of Erria!]
My body got busted up really damn hard a while back, but but I wanna hope there's still at least a bit of it left. And yeah there's tidal waters too so I had to calculate for all of the effects of those too...
But like, if you wanted a machine that could work like a human's brain and stuff, I think the Wagner and my human body could help stuff out hardcore.
If you're interested, that is. And you're not just gonna force this "fork" to behave a certain way.
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-Actually, that'd save me a lot of time on building the computer architecture-
...Fine...
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[Sielje voices her words carefully. The situation she sees does not make her happy.]
A copy would be a new, different person.
[She pauses.]
It is not that I do not appreciate the effort to do something, but...
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[Jen lets the knight finish her thought.]
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I think I would be happy even if we don't find something, if I could spend my time left with you.
[Doomstar starts to protest, but is cut off by Jen holding up a hand.]
But...at the same time, I want to try this. Are you worried about it being...weird, if the...thing that comes out, looks like me?
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[Sielje turns to Doomstar.]
You said this is untested. We may not predict what will happen... what could go wrong. And even in the best of cases...
Even then it will not solve anything. You may bring a new... being to life, but how will it feel about itself, knowing it was only a copy?
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I'm not sure-nobody's ever really done this before. How would you feel?
...It'd depend on how we treat them, wouldn't it...?
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Look, let's...I'll do this just in case, but let's keep looking, alright?
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[Sielje mumbles, still not entirely happy with the idea.]
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Hm...If everything went perfectly, you'd only be able to tell the difference with a brain scan. It'd be pretty obvious on that scan, but still.
...More likely, only close friends and relatives will be able to tell anything happened beyond a concussion. Though the differences will accumulate if the fork strikes out on its own, and doesn't try to "be Jen." That's why Julia synchronized her copies into a single mind.
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Still, if the copy's not all that different...
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But, really. Are you the same person you were two years ago? Because I know I'm certainly not.
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Well...Yes, but she won't remember it, because the fork will be based on an earlier version of her memories.
Right, so I'm trying to think of it more as a change, than an end.
[Though the person who comes out of it could be very different...]
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...Probably, I guess.
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[The Dinobot can't exactly be present physically due to his size, but he does still drop a line in for the conversation.]
Not too different... from... spark splice.
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[So it's not just brain copying in the Cybertronian case. Its literally carving out a piece of their soul as the basis for a new one.]
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How do people treat Spark Splicing where you're from?
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Used be suspicious. Say because sparks...not forged from hot spots... unnatural. Many millennia ago. Was stupid. Last hot spot on Cybertron died long time before humans on Earth. Mean splicing become more accepted.
Humans lives shorter. Will get over issue faster.
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She frowns in thought. "But is it possible to do that while maintaining a sense of continuity?"
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[Doomstar speaks up, trying to find an upside in the whole situation.]
...Continuity wouldn't be...that hard to maintain, if we make the copy have the same outward appearance...There might be some memory loss, but-
Yeah, but we're not doing that.
[Jen's reply is short and matter-of fact.]
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She glances at Jen. "So if you do go with Doomstar's plan, copy your mind to make a new person...would it be like a new sister to you...or a daughter"
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[Jen has to stop to think about that one.]
...Let's go with sister, since they'd be my age.
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But, it's like...Well...
Daniel, if you found out your brain was replaced with a artificial brain back when you got your cyberization done, would you still think of yourself as "Daniel"?
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