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   silverwizard (silverwizard@convenient.email)'s status on Monday, 24-Mar-2025 23:16:15 JST silverwizard

   I really don't understand people's existential horror at Star Trek transporters.

   If you're a materialist - why do you care if your body is preserved alongside your mind. Why is it a problem that you get stored in a pattern buffer?

   If you're not a materialist - why do you care about the body and not the soul? Why do you think your soul would become untethered because of changes in your body? I don't get it!

   • Embed this notice
     Malin (malin@dice.camp)'s status on Monday, 24-Mar-2025 23:31:43 JST Malin

     in reply to

     @silverwizard
     Maybe it shines too much of a spotlight onto the fact that a person is, much like a legal entity, a fiction; created by shared understanding, which is also a fiction.

     You cant move files onto a USB stick - you can only copy them, then delete the first copy.

     You can believe in materialism, and computer-files, while still feeling uncomfortable with the full implications.

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     silverwizard (silverwizard@convenient.email)'s status on Monday, 24-Mar-2025 23:39:45 JST silverwizard

     in reply to

     • Malin

     @malin Interesting - so you think that it's about the ability to copy. Thomas Riker is the real prior art here - but also kinda the counter example. Mirroring the pattern was supposed to be impossible - the idea of copying something with the transporter is impossible properly.

     Maybe it's true - the idea of digital information is what's causing the issue - computers can only properly copy - but as envisioned in the 60s there's this idea that you can be transformed into a "matter stream" and stored in a buffer and it's fine. But now people don't materially engage with that...

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     Malin (malin@dice.camp)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Mar-2025 00:36:03 JST Malin

     in reply to

     @silverwizard
     Riker's twin makes a great example, along with that guy with the fear of transporters.

     I think the fear comes from really thinking about what the real process is, but you're probably right that people understand it more now from working with files.

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