Agreed. That's my point. I don't really know if we have a soul. If transporter technology existed and worked as theorized, then it would answer a bunch of questions that have been plaguing humanity.
If everything that I am can be duplicated by making a perfect copy of me atom for atom, then there is nothing to fear from transporter technology.
I would actually really like a 4"x4"x1.5" square of perfectly marbled steak cloned from Kobe beef genes in some tray in a lab. No gristle, no bones, perfect consistency in every bite.
Seared in a blazing hot cast iron pan with salt, pepper, butter and lemon.
$8.99 lb. at Publix. I'll take the transporter to get there.
Isn't it still kind of the same thing though?
Star Trek calls that "matter stream" energy your "pattern". Pattern sounds a lot like Information. Data. Which is very easy to transmit and duplicate. Data can also be lost or corrupted.
So it's as if they convert all your atoms to a file, then FTP your file to somewhere else where the technology turns your pattern back into matter.
"You" can't exist as just data, so at that point you're already dead. I think...
There are episodes where your pattern is stuck in the pattern buffer. You're only information being stored at that point.
If you have no soul and you just exist as matter, then in a horrible transporter accident where your clone and your original still exist, now there are two of you. You are both you. There is no difference if you are both perfect copies of each other. 1=1.
Sounds like a win/win to me, finally a best friend who really gets me.
"Soul conceit" is the right term here. The belief humans can't seem to shake that I am more than just the sum of my parts.
I don't know if I have a soul or if my consciousness is really just electric meat. But it seems that if I am more than the sum of my parts, the soulless me that comes out the other side will just be "my parts" and will be obviously different than the original me.
If we really are just our atoms, and the technology can be trusted to reliably replicate me atom for atom on the other side then there's nothing to be afraid of. The original you hasn't died, it's just ceased to exist. No big deal. The clone of you is also you, so you still exist.
Oof...everybody being able to go to whatever the latest viral pool above a waterfall or cronut shop is all at once...
Agreed. Fuck hormones. I'm over here trying to be logical, and my hormones are telling me other things.
Thank you, fellow human.
Fair question.
I'm assuming that if your soul really is "you" then a soulless clone of you that is identical to you down to every atom, but had no soul, would be bad.
I don't know if that means your soulless clone would just be an instinct driven animal, or maybe just an evil version of you that immediately grows a goatee. I don't know what function your soul actually performs. But at some point, maybe not immediately, a bunch of soulless clones walking around would be noticed.
Maybe? (Or maybe not?)
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.
Great Googly-Moogly! That was it! I'm in and posting from Connect.
Oh, so that's what The Great Filter looks like! Neat!
Hopefully my clone likes me as much as I like me.