They make up these definitions themselves, then become entangled in them and nothing is won.
For starters, let me recommend Solé's terrific book "Phase Transitions" which answers the question whether or not a virus can be considered "life" from a phase space POV.
From this, you can, with some years of pondering and meditating, abstract further and hopefully, finally go completely Zen: Can there be an answer? Does the question make sense? Do definitions make sense?
idk i'm no "scientist" apparently because it's never stumped me as unsolvable. I define life as everything that adheres to evolution, so in other words everything that has a genetic code. More or less "life" sometimes (superficially) also only refers to the metabolism that is caused by living beings, which would exclude viruses and such.
So a genetic evolutionary algorithm on a computer is alive? Many would not agree with that. You can add the qualifier that it needs to reproduce by itself but then viruses don't qualify.
In the same sense, an uploaded human mind would not be alive and have no rights, assuming this is technically feasible. A torment nexus would then just be fine. Maybe pseudo-life must be a thing.
A really clunky high level idea that was not intentionally constructed with any forethought and breaks down fast if you look at it too close from almost any angle.
Depends entirely on the teleporter used. If its folded space youre still the og you, imo settings that use teleporters that rebuild you bit by bit seem poorly thought out to me. Why not cure all disease with that? Why not print of an infinite number of duplicates? Couldnt you be young forever with that tech? Just save a pattern from your twenties.
Theyre some of my favorite star trek episodes, but the ramifications of the transporter episodes never seem to stick around. Makes the world feel less fleshed out
There is some merit in thinking of it as a transmission only device.
That is, it cannot store any data, but deconstructs on one end and has to transmit and reconstruct on the other end immediately, because the amount of data is infinitely high.
For Star Trek, they are sending all your mass as energy. The data is there to make sure they put all your bits back together in the right order. Though that was ruined by the one episode where they did make a copy, despite how hard they tried to technobabble around it.
The metaphysical identity problem is a slippery slope of existential dread. It starts with Theseus asking if his ship is the same one after he replaces every one of it's planks. It accelerates to asking if we would be the same person after being teleported. It ends with us laying awake in bed terrified that this moment is our last because maybe we're a different consciousness when we wake up.
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I am untethered and my rage knows no bounds over the missing 't' in teleportation.
teleportion
- Little Gidding, T. S. Eliot
lol wut? Those be NAWT the words ascribed. Belay your last.
I didn't even see that and now I also hate it here
Teleporters are just as real as souls, so this must be true.
Souls are real, they're just fourth dimensional organs, and they're shifted into that higher plane. That's why we can't see them.
Wow, that makes total sense. You must be some kind of scientist.
fun fact: souls are given the same name in german ("seele") than the interior of cables:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seele_(Technik)
It's because the soul refers to the spinal cord in the spinal canal that is embedded like a metal wire in a cable, i believe.
The answer is, "dont think about it, especially dont think about that time with Riker"
Does it still have Original Sin?
count yer ribs
You will bow before me son of God cause I'm without original sin now after being teleported
original sin was when our ancestors left the sea so we have to work jobs now
I am in constant debate with one of my friends about whether using a teleporter would "kill you" It's been a topic of conversation for years now
First, define life. That one has stumped scientists for a long time already.
They make up these definitions themselves, then become entangled in them and nothing is won.
For starters, let me recommend Solé's terrific book "Phase Transitions" which answers the question whether or not a virus can be considered "life" from a phase space POV.
From this, you can, with some years of pondering and meditating, abstract further and hopefully, finally go completely Zen: Can there be an answer? Does the question make sense? Do definitions make sense?
Just ask Pluto
idk i'm no "scientist" apparently because it's never stumped me as unsolvable. I define life as everything that adheres to evolution, so in other words everything that has a genetic code. More or less "life" sometimes (superficially) also only refers to the metabolism that is caused by living beings, which would exclude viruses and such.
So a genetic evolutionary algorithm on a computer is alive? Many would not agree with that. You can add the qualifier that it needs to reproduce by itself but then viruses don't qualify.
In the same sense, an uploaded human mind would not be alive and have no rights, assuming this is technically feasible. A torment nexus would then just be fine. Maybe pseudo-life must be a thing.
viruses? prions? self-optimizing computer programs? societies?
scientists have identified a single-celled microbe that lacks all metabolic functions / genetics and outsources that to other bacteria. is it alive?
A really clunky high level idea that was not intentionally constructed with any forethought and breaks down fast if you look at it too close from almost any angle.
Alternatively:
That thing people keep telling me to get.
Depends entirely on the teleporter used. If its folded space youre still the og you, imo settings that use teleporters that rebuild you bit by bit seem poorly thought out to me. Why not cure all disease with that? Why not print of an infinite number of duplicates? Couldnt you be young forever with that tech? Just save a pattern from your twenties.
Theyre some of my favorite star trek episodes, but the ramifications of the transporter episodes never seem to stick around. Makes the world feel less fleshed out
There is some merit in thinking of it as a transmission only device.
That is, it cannot store any data, but deconstructs on one end and has to transmit and reconstruct on the other end immediately, because the amount of data is infinitely high.
If data is sent over a medium, then it could be stored, thus making copies possible.
For Star Trek, they are sending all your mass as energy. The data is there to make sure they put all your bits back together in the right order. Though that was ruined by the one episode where they did make a copy, despite how hard they tried to technobabble around it.
And the episode where they cure someone (i think picard?) of some space parasite or force by using the transporter to reset them to before they had it
And the episode where someone gets stuck as a whole ass sentient person in the pattern buffer
And tuvix
Again, some of my favorite episodes are "the transporter is fucked" episodes, but they leave a lot of holes in the narative imo
The metaphysical identity problem is a slippery slope of existential dread. It starts with Theseus asking if his ship is the same one after he replaces every one of it's planks. It accelerates to asking if we would be the same person after being teleported. It ends with us laying awake in bed terrified that this moment is our last because maybe we're a different consciousness when we wake up.
What the fuck is "I" and why are we all up our own asses about it if we don't have answers?
if this is really your last moment, you might relax. why worry so much if it's no use after all?
IMHO there is no real debate about if it "kills" you. The debate really is about the definition of "kill"/"death".
sounds like a ship of theseus reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus
Every part of the ship is replaced one-after-another. At what point is the ship still the same ship? At what point is it a new ship?
Nope, tried it, still here. Gonna try throwing stuff at cops next. Or maybe a hydraulic press.
Bones about to enter these comments
This sounds like something that would be in tf2, if it even mattered, but medic has all the mercs' souls already.
Teleporer!
all your base are belong to us!