This is copy pasted from a thread "Philosophical Question Regarding Synthetic Ascension". This is an original work written by me, but feel free to copy and distribute if you want.
Science Leader's Log, date 2319.1.14,
The alien device had stood here from time immemorial, according to our scanner, it predated our entire species. I hesitated a bit before sending a crew member into the small chamber, but the war between humanity and the Cynur Bloodborn, who seek to purify us from the galaxy has been going poorly, and risking a man's life to explore alien artifacts might be the thing that saves our species. I asked for volunteers and was not disappointed.
The man stepped inside and said, "there's just this one button, should i press it?"
"Go ahead," i told him.
With a buzzing noise and a flash of light the man disappeared, leaving behind nothing but the faint scent of ozone.
Ah, some sort of suicide machine, i realized. I wondered if the entire species had lined up in front of machines like this one, and had committed suicide. What could have possibly moved them to such a thing, I wondered.
"Well, that was unfortunate," I told the rest of my crew, "he gave his life for science, that humanity might have a chance of surviving this long war of ours. Let us honor his sacrifice with a moment of silence, then lets get started dismantling this thing, take it back with us, maybe we can reverse engineer it into some sort of disintegrator weapon."
They nodded and bowed their head in a moment of respectful silence, as we mourned our fallen brother.
The silence was broken by another loud buzzing noise and a flash of light, and to our surprise the man reappeared, seemingly unharmed.
"Captain," he said, "You won't believe this, but it's some sort of teleporter. I pressed the button and it took me to some other place on the planet, I could tell, because it was different time of day. This is incredible! We need to get this technology back home, think of all the money we could save on transportation costs, and stuff. This will change everything!"
I looked the man, he certainly looked the same. I was a bit wary though, as I did not trust alien technology. For all I knew, he was some sort of bomb that was designed to resemble my crewmember that would detonate once I took him back to the ship.
"Tell me," i asked him, "are you really still the same crewman i sent in, or an alien impostor made to resemble him?"
"Of course its me!" He said, indignantly, "I still have all my memories. I remember that you had scrambled eggs and a cup of vanilla roast this morning in the mess hall. You told a joke about the Bloodborn having to restrain their women from eating their own babies, we all laughed so hard."
Well that was true, maybe he was the same man. I suppose I should go ahead and take him back with us, certainly the scientists back home would be interested in this new "teleporter" technology.
Just then, the machine gave another loud buzzing noise and another flash of light, and an identical crewmember came out, looking excited.
"Captain," he said, "You won't believe this, but it's some sort of teleporter. I pressed the button and it took me to some other place on the planet, I could tell, because it was different time of day. This is incredible! We need to get this technology back home, think of all the money we could save on transportation costs, and stuff. This will change everything!"
I stared at him in horror. None of us said anything, so to fill the silence he continued.
"Um, yeah, there was this switch on the side of the button i hadn't noticed, and when i pressed the button again to get back here, the first time, nothing happened. Just some light flashed and a buzzing noise, but I didn't go anywhere. But then I flipped the switch, pressed the button again and it worked, and here I am, sorry it took me so long... why are you all staring at me. Wait. Is that me? Who the hell is that! Why is there an impostor over there!? Captain I am the real guy! I remember this morning you had some eggs and vanilla roast and told this great joke about the Bloodborn! You got to believe me." He insisted.
The other copy started to say something in his own defense, "I don't remember any switch, I just pressed it once and here I was..." but i couldn't risk it. I pulled out my gun and shot them both dead. Better safe than sorry.
I told my shocked crew, "This never happened, understand? Alien machine tried to trick us all, I couldn't take the risk that one of them was some sort of weapon that would eat us all or blow up the ship."
No one said anything for a bit, then one by one they all nodded or said "Aye aye captain"
"We are going to plant many bombs, leave, then bomb this place from orbit some. Its the only way to be sure."
They all agreed, and so we left. Who knows what horrendous fate humanity had just averted. I just pray no one will come to this forsaken place and find more of these machines and be fooled like we almost were.
Author's note: This is meant to be funny, but also to illustrate some problems with the idea of identity and transfer of identity from place to place, body to body, or body to machine. Was that the same crewmember? Where they both? Who was the original? Or did the original die the first time he pressed the button?
Science Leader's Log, date 2319.1.14,
The alien device had stood here from time immemorial, according to our scanner, it predated our entire species. I hesitated a bit before sending a crew member into the small chamber, but the war between humanity and the Cynur Bloodborn, who seek to purify us from the galaxy has been going poorly, and risking a man's life to explore alien artifacts might be the thing that saves our species. I asked for volunteers and was not disappointed.
The man stepped inside and said, "there's just this one button, should i press it?"
"Go ahead," i told him.
With a buzzing noise and a flash of light the man disappeared, leaving behind nothing but the faint scent of ozone.
Ah, some sort of suicide machine, i realized. I wondered if the entire species had lined up in front of machines like this one, and had committed suicide. What could have possibly moved them to such a thing, I wondered.
"Well, that was unfortunate," I told the rest of my crew, "he gave his life for science, that humanity might have a chance of surviving this long war of ours. Let us honor his sacrifice with a moment of silence, then lets get started dismantling this thing, take it back with us, maybe we can reverse engineer it into some sort of disintegrator weapon."
They nodded and bowed their head in a moment of respectful silence, as we mourned our fallen brother.
The silence was broken by another loud buzzing noise and a flash of light, and to our surprise the man reappeared, seemingly unharmed.
"Captain," he said, "You won't believe this, but it's some sort of teleporter. I pressed the button and it took me to some other place on the planet, I could tell, because it was different time of day. This is incredible! We need to get this technology back home, think of all the money we could save on transportation costs, and stuff. This will change everything!"
I looked the man, he certainly looked the same. I was a bit wary though, as I did not trust alien technology. For all I knew, he was some sort of bomb that was designed to resemble my crewmember that would detonate once I took him back to the ship.
"Tell me," i asked him, "are you really still the same crewman i sent in, or an alien impostor made to resemble him?"
"Of course its me!" He said, indignantly, "I still have all my memories. I remember that you had scrambled eggs and a cup of vanilla roast this morning in the mess hall. You told a joke about the Bloodborn having to restrain their women from eating their own babies, we all laughed so hard."
Well that was true, maybe he was the same man. I suppose I should go ahead and take him back with us, certainly the scientists back home would be interested in this new "teleporter" technology.
Just then, the machine gave another loud buzzing noise and another flash of light, and an identical crewmember came out, looking excited.
"Captain," he said, "You won't believe this, but it's some sort of teleporter. I pressed the button and it took me to some other place on the planet, I could tell, because it was different time of day. This is incredible! We need to get this technology back home, think of all the money we could save on transportation costs, and stuff. This will change everything!"
I stared at him in horror. None of us said anything, so to fill the silence he continued.
"Um, yeah, there was this switch on the side of the button i hadn't noticed, and when i pressed the button again to get back here, the first time, nothing happened. Just some light flashed and a buzzing noise, but I didn't go anywhere. But then I flipped the switch, pressed the button again and it worked, and here I am, sorry it took me so long... why are you all staring at me. Wait. Is that me? Who the hell is that! Why is there an impostor over there!? Captain I am the real guy! I remember this morning you had some eggs and vanilla roast and told this great joke about the Bloodborn! You got to believe me." He insisted.
The other copy started to say something in his own defense, "I don't remember any switch, I just pressed it once and here I was..." but i couldn't risk it. I pulled out my gun and shot them both dead. Better safe than sorry.
I told my shocked crew, "This never happened, understand? Alien machine tried to trick us all, I couldn't take the risk that one of them was some sort of weapon that would eat us all or blow up the ship."
No one said anything for a bit, then one by one they all nodded or said "Aye aye captain"
"We are going to plant many bombs, leave, then bomb this place from orbit some. Its the only way to be sure."
They all agreed, and so we left. Who knows what horrendous fate humanity had just averted. I just pray no one will come to this forsaken place and find more of these machines and be fooled like we almost were.
Author's note: This is meant to be funny, but also to illustrate some problems with the idea of identity and transfer of identity from place to place, body to body, or body to machine. Was that the same crewmember? Where they both? Who was the original? Or did the original die the first time he pressed the button?
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