this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
147 points (95.1% liked)

Asklemmy

43940 readers
624 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

You know those sci-fi teleporters like in Star Trek where you disappear from one location then instantaneously reappear in another location? Do you trust that they are safe to use?

To fully understand my question, you need to understand the safety concerns regarding teleporters as explained in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQHBAdShgYI

spoilerI wouldn't, because the person that reappears aint me, its a fucking clone. Teleporters are murder machines. Star Trek is a silent massacre!

(page 3) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[โ€“] DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (13 children)

Well, if the technology actually existed, it would solve that whole "soul" question.

We would know pretty quickly if we transported humans and they came out the other side as soulless aberrations because their original just got killed.

So yeah, I would 100% use it after it first proved once and for all that the sum of our consciousness really is all the synapses and signals and grey matter in our heads. Because if so then what does it matter if your original matter has been erased and then recreated. Your clone is just as much you as you are you at that point.

[โ€“] Anomander@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Absolutely this.

Someone else can be the guinea pig, but if it's been tested and everyone came out fine? Yeah. I'll absolutely take advantage.

[โ€“] olivier@lemmy.fait.ch 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even if the clone is undistinguishable from your old self, that old self has died. "you" has died. You didn't teleport to Mars, you died on Earth.

[โ€“] Anomander@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (21 children)

You're repeating what OP said.

Thing is, the idea that an "old you" has "died" is a modern soul conceit. If "me" is just the combination of meat, electricity, and memories - then for all intents and purposes I was simply taken apart in one place and reassembled in another. Continuity of all three is maintained when I am reassembled on Mars with my body and memories intact. There is no "old" and "new" me - because what you or OP think defines "me" isn't something that dies when the meat stops working briefly.

load more comments (21 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (12 replies)
[โ€“] saigot@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Imagine you have a device that transmits your brain signals into another body so that you can control 2 bodies at once. Clearly you are one self that is controlling two bodies. Clearly destroying either one of these bodies wouldn't really kill you (so long as your brain is fine) you'd just continue existing in the other body.

Now let's say we copy your brain exactly and put it in the other body, and then a device that synchronizes your memories and experiences. body 1 would act exactly like body 2 in every circumstance. I don't see the difference between the first scenario and the second, you are one self, distributed across 2 brains and 2 bodies. If you killed one of the bodies, no one would die, it would be more akin to losing a limb.

Now let's remove the synchronizer, for the first instant it's identical to scenario 2, but over time the 2 selves would diverge and become separate people.

so as long as we kill off the old self immediately before or at the same time as the new body comes online then I don't see it as a murder machine like you describe.

however, if we have the tech to copy the body perfectly, who is to say we can't improve the body as teleport them, make the new body stronger or disease proof. And if we do that, who's to say we couldn't make small changes to the thoughts or memories, make you more docile or forget injustices. That seems pretty risky to me.

[โ€“] aedyr@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Anyone remember that Outer Limits episode about this? They thought the teleporter malfunctioned, but it really just failed to destroy the source "copy" of the girl at the point of origin. Since she also appeared at destination, the station operator had to flush the original out of the airlock.

TLDR- Would totally use it.

[โ€“] Sanctus@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

We've seen someone's POV going through a transporter. From your own perspective you would just see some glowy shit and appear at your destination. Of course, I would make an army of myself with another me in the transport buffer tweaked to retain the pattern for a long time. But instant transportation is invaluable.

[โ€“] zerbey@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In ST canon they are considered the safest form of travel. So, yeah I'd use them if that was the standard.

[โ€“] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Except they have malfunctions all the time and there are several characters who refuse to use transporters.

[โ€“] Buckshot@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago

"How many Transporter accidents have there been in the last tens years, Reg? Two... three? What about the millions of people who transport every day without a problem" - Geordi - TNG Realm of Fear S6E2

load more comments (1 replies)
[โ€“] MonsiuerPatEBrown@reddthat.com 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

We are all clones already.

I would hope that people would start finding a way to include them into sports and play.

Thieving would be impossible to stop so it would become the standard.

The world would be held together by mortal gods; what a hootenanny.

[โ€“] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No thanks, the plot in wikipedia is horrifying enough to read, I ain't watching that shit.

[โ€“] Lumidaub@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago (22 children)

I've always had a hard time understanding what's so bad about the person who arrives being a clone, never saw the downside. Yes, I 'd definitely use it. One of the biggest hurdles in my everyday life is the "going there". When I was still working, the one thing I always complained about and what ruined my every morning was having to go there and return after. If I'd had the option to instantly teleport to work, I would have loved every day because I loved my work and I wanted to be there. Now that I'm disabled, I regularly have to cancel stuff like doctor's appointments last minute because my chronic exhaustion is acting up and I physically can't move my body there.

(If teleporting isn't available, I'd settle for a ship's computer core as a PDA)

load more comments (22 replies)
load more comments
view more: โ€น prev next โ€บ