anon text | what the hell am i doing here?

[alsohawkeye]

So poll time:

What's creepier?
a) zombies
b) robots
c) clones

Discuss.


[ ooc: all of Kate's responses will be anonymous unless otherwise marked ]

Comments

[vivelavenir]

I'm afraid I don't understand the options?

Would you mind explaining?

[alsohawkeye]

Zombies are living corpses. Robots are mechanical entities. Clones are copies of people.

[vivelavenir]

Ah.

Clones then, I think of course.

Thank you.

[alsohawkeye]

How did you decide?

[vivelavenir]

Well, a living corpse is not so very frightening, is it? A scientist might say that elements of us live on once the soul has left the body. Folklore talks in shades of all sorts of undead. But even the undead can surely die again, for nothing is immortal but time. Thus, 'a living corpse' is rather the same as saying 'a normal man', simply in a state of decay- is that not unlike sickness? A sickness that turns you to life is not so 'creepy.'

Then, too, I must agree that robots are a rather heinous invention of the future eras. They mimic sentience, but without the spark of life that even your zombies might have. Still, in that way, they can at least be 'turned off', that we might choose the crock pot over the microwave.

But a clone?

A clone is taking a man (or woman's) identity, their agency. Their mind and feelings. A clone is something for which we must feel perfect sympathy, but in seeing ourselves in such an aimless twin, also a kind of deep revulsion.

You can recover from seeing a man brought back to life, or from hearing a computer face greet you good morning. Can anyone recover, though, from seeing a version of themselves they have no agency over, but every responsibility towards?

[alsohawkeye]

Interesting.

So is it the "spark of life" that makes the difference, to you? Because apparently there are robots that are indistinguishable from humans but are somehow still known to be robots. And they can do more than mimic sentience, even in more obviously mechanical forms, it's possible for them to actually achieve it. Is turning them off that different from killing a "living" person?

It's possible that clones might be exact duplicates physically but not in terms of mind or feelings. They're grown or born from the same material as the original, but unless there's some sort of brainwave-implantation happening they could have their own life. I expect, I haven't dealt with them personally that I know of. It does sound like given how many worlds try to use them in armies that they're often raised to be less individual.

[vivelavenir]

I suppose it would then come down to whether sentience implies a soul. Generally, I should say it does... though I admit, it makes me very uneasy to think of a machine with a soul, that it is made and not born. Would the soul, like the body, not also be unnatural than? One shudders to think upon it.

Do such things exist, where you are from?

And, apologies- clone armies, you said? The creation of duplicates to populate wars? Is that not a sin against compassion itself? Are these clones given a choice in the matter?