this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2025
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Yeah, there definitely are some waved away elements that are basically magic. I'm just binging TNG now, but I saw the Lower Decks tribute to many-a transporter incidents.

I mean if you can transport and not at the same time (the copy version), it is not hard to think that once that buffer is cleared on the one side, it's game over man.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

it's only a problem if you think the sole thing defining "you" is an intangible soul that for some reason wouldn't just transfer between or get copied alongside instances of yourself

the line of reasoning you talk about has always been so strange to me, you'd be talking to a person walking out of a transporter and insist they're dead, as they look you in the eye and ask if that's an insult

[–] [email protected] 1 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

I had a similar argument with a friend, and I think he won that time. It came out of left field and rephrases the whole thought experiment.

Instead of me defending the argument, how would you interpret a clone incident? Would you get 'the other feed' as well? We have the sleep cycle where we don't actively get input (even though our conciousness is present during dreams to a certain extent). So if a transporter clone incident rebuilds the person on the other side, but an original instant could go on experiencing a life that wouldn't be if the transporter functioned correctly.

Hopefully that took the soul out of your argument!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

cloning is pretty simple: you end up in both places. there's no magical continuity of experience, both clones are equal and will 100% feel like the original and have equally valid claims to such, and to a third observer it would basically just look like two very confused identical twins who share their memories before the cloning.
You obviously wouldn't end up with a single conscience experiencing both points of view at once, lmao.

it's just like copying data on a computer, it's all the same data so it's nonsensical to call any copy the "original".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago

Well, teleporting is more like the move function where you delete the original copy.