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Authors: Michael McCloskey
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substrate
material, your physical neurons, even if consciousness is partially in the
energy states and electromagnetic fields.”
Telisa held up her hands.
“Look. This is Trilisk
technology, and they understood so much more than we do. Maybe there are whole
other dimensions involved we don’t understand. Still, if you believe the
Trilisks messed up here, or had a different way of looking at copies of
themselves than we do, there’s still an out. I mean, if it’s not some kind of
‘true essence’ of yourself that gets transferred, we might still safely use it.
Suppose the original you really is you, consciousness-wise. Suppose your new
one is just a copy. Here’s what you do: copy yourself, send the copy on the
expedition with us. The ‘real you’ is just in stasis. When you get back, you
download your new experiences into the original you, wake up, and there you
are. It happened to me: when I transferred back into my original self, I could
remember everything that happened in the other body.”
“But then what about the copy?”
asked Caden. “It’s not me. But he thinks he is, and he’s alive just like me. I
can’t very well justify stuffing him into stasis indefinitely. And if he knows
that’s what’s waiting for him, he might not come back.”
Good point, Imanol
thought.
“Then flip-flop,” Cilreth
suggested. “Both of the copies get to live. Just not at the same time. Spend a
month or two as one of you, then switch on a schedule. Always sync yourself at
switch time—or more often, for that matter. Use your fast copy for dangerous
missions and keep your slow and stupid self back here where it’s safe.”
“Stupid? This affects
intelligence?”
“We don’t know exactly, but if
the body is improved overall, cognitive function might improve as well,” Telisa
said. “Certainly reaction speeds might improve.”
“Is this illegal? We’re not
supposed to grow clones of ourselves,” Caden said.
“We’re finding new technologies
faster than we can develop ethics on using them,” Telisa said. “Are you happy
to let the government dictate your life rules?”
Imanol noticed Telisa had posed
the question to Caden. For all his virtual world skills, he remained naive and
sheltered.
She’s poking at his loyalties , he
thought. And she knows I’m anti-government. In fact, this whole outfit must
be. She wants to know if Caden is too! What the hell have I gotten into here?
In that moment, Imanol felt he
may have discovered an undercurrent of motive he had completely missed before.
But the others seemed not to notice.
By the Five. Have I just joined
the UED and didn’t even know it?
Maxsym jumped in before Caden
replied.
“Ethics should arise from trial
and error,” Maxsym said. “At first, you do whatever you want. You learn some
harsh lessons. Then you form a framework of best practices. That’s just an
accelerated version of how societies construct their mores.”
“You really think that?” Caden
said.
“The reason we view killing
each other as wrong is because it is a suboptimal way for a society to work, at
least in past stages of development,” Maxsym said. “If it were better, a
society in history where the members routinely killed each other would have
arisen as dominant, and they would have rules that encouraged it. Murder
wouldn’t be considered wrong. After all, war is murder, and that was required
for primitive societies to survive, so it was allowed. People tend to be… unable
to handle the complexities, so they distill this wisdom down into static
rules.”
Well, Maxsym is in line with
their sentiment, I think. I don’t know about Siobhan…
“We’re off subject,” Cilreth
said.
“We’d be stupid not to take
advantage of such possibilities,” Imanol said. “Faster? Maybe even smarter?
Long life? You can’t measure how important those are. I say we use it.”
“I have a solution, but it will
take more work,” Siobhan said. “Look, if these things can
material, your physical neurons, even if consciousness is partially in the
energy states and electromagnetic fields.”
Telisa held up her hands.
“Look. This is Trilisk
technology, and they understood so much more than we do. Maybe there are whole
other dimensions involved we don’t understand. Still, if you believe the
Trilisks messed up here, or had a different way of looking at copies of
themselves than we do, there’s still an out. I mean, if it’s not some kind of
‘true essence’ of yourself that gets transferred, we might still safely use it.
Suppose the original you really is you, consciousness-wise. Suppose your new
one is just a copy. Here’s what you do: copy yourself, send the copy on the
expedition with us. The ‘real you’ is just in stasis. When you get back, you
download your new experiences into the original you, wake up, and there you
are. It happened to me: when I transferred back into my original self, I could
remember everything that happened in the other body.”
“But then what about the copy?”
asked Caden. “It’s not me. But he thinks he is, and he’s alive just like me. I
can’t very well justify stuffing him into stasis indefinitely. And if he knows
that’s what’s waiting for him, he might not come back.”
Good point, Imanol
thought.
“Then flip-flop,” Cilreth
suggested. “Both of the copies get to live. Just not at the same time. Spend a
month or two as one of you, then switch on a schedule. Always sync yourself at
switch time—or more often, for that matter. Use your fast copy for dangerous
missions and keep your slow and stupid self back here where it’s safe.”
“Stupid? This affects
intelligence?”
“We don’t know exactly, but if
the body is improved overall, cognitive function might improve as well,” Telisa
said. “Certainly reaction speeds might improve.”
“Is this illegal? We’re not
supposed to grow clones of ourselves,” Caden said.
“We’re finding new technologies
faster than we can develop ethics on using them,” Telisa said. “Are you happy
to let the government dictate your life rules?”
Imanol noticed Telisa had posed
the question to Caden. For all his virtual world skills, he remained naive and
sheltered.
She’s poking at his loyalties , he
thought. And she knows I’m anti-government. In fact, this whole outfit must
be. She wants to know if Caden is too! What the hell have I gotten into here?
In that moment, Imanol felt he
may have discovered an undercurrent of motive he had completely missed before.
But the others seemed not to notice.
By the Five. Have I just joined
the UED and didn’t even know it?
Maxsym jumped in before Caden
replied.
“Ethics should arise from trial
and error,” Maxsym said. “At first, you do whatever you want. You learn some
harsh lessons. Then you form a framework of best practices. That’s just an
accelerated version of how societies construct their mores.”
“You really think that?” Caden
said.
“The reason we view killing
each other as wrong is because it is a suboptimal way for a society to work, at
least in past stages of development,” Maxsym said. “If it were better, a
society in history where the members routinely killed each other would have
arisen as dominant, and they would have rules that encouraged it. Murder
wouldn’t be considered wrong. After all, war is murder, and that was required
for primitive societies to survive, so it was allowed. People tend to be… unable
to handle the complexities, so they distill this wisdom down into static
rules.”
Well, Maxsym is in line with
their sentiment, I think. I don’t know about Siobhan…
“We’re off subject,” Cilreth
said.
“We’d be stupid not to take
advantage of such possibilities,” Imanol said. “Faster? Maybe even smarter?
Long life? You can’t measure how important those are. I say we use it.”
“I have a solution, but it will
take more work,” Siobhan said. “Look, if these things can
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