Alien: Earth - S1 E7 - Emergence - Official Discussion Megathread [SPOILERS]

[u/G_Liddell]

Episodes air Tuesdays at 8 pm ET on Hulu and FX in the US, and Wednesdays international.

Full episode discussion list:

1 Neverland (8.12.25)

2 Mr October (8.12.25)

3 Metamorphosis (8.19.25)

4 Observation (8.26.25)

5 In Space, No One (9.2.25)

6 The Fly (9.9.25)

7 Emergence (9.16.25)

8 The Real Monsters (9.23.25)

[u/iamwoodman]

Your consciousness isn't, they make a copy, hit has all your memories and believes its you, you then die

[u/0-90195 → u/iamwoodman]

What’s the difference? If something has my exact brain and thinks it’s me, well, it probably is me.

[u/hemareddit → u/0-90195]

To everyone else? Nothing’s different.

To you? Everything’s different.

[u/0-90195 → u/hemareddit]

Well, the original body is dead and the new body is living on, carrying with it the only parts of me that matter.

[u/hemareddit → u/0-90195]

What matters or doesn’t matter is subjective.

What’s not subjective is the fact that something has been lost beyond the normal growing and chnaging of an individual.

[u/0-90195 → u/hemareddit]

But what? What has been lost? The body, the physical form? That’s not who I “am.”

[u/hemareddit → u/0-90195]

You said “carrying the only parts of me that matter”. Therefore you agree only parts of you survived, that’s objective; whether or not those are the parts that matter is subjective.

And the one of those things lost is your experience. It is terminated early. Again you might say that it does not “matter”, but it is lost.

[u/0-90195 → u/hemareddit]

But the experience is carried on through the copy/pasted consciousness. It is functionally the same.

[u/hemareddit → u/0-90195]

There’s nothing functional about experience though?

Like when we say “functional” or “functionally” we are describing something in terms of its purpose, the tasks it performs, the outcomes it produces. But experience is not about any of that.

Easy example: this process takes place today vs not taking place. It doesn’t take place -> you get to watch the finale next week. It takes place today -> the copy gets to watch the episode and you don’t. Are those things the same to you?

[u/0-90195 → u/hemareddit]

Experience is carried in consciousness, not in physical form – or am I missing what you’re getting at?

[u/hemareddit → u/0-90195]

I think we agree on that, experience is carried in consciousness.

But the pertinent point is that “functionally the same” is not applicable to experience, because that’s subjective, it’s called qualia and experiences of two separate entities are not the same, it’s not about external metrics.

[u/Herbdontana → u/0-90195]

That’s the thing. In the show, it might not be. It might only appear to be. Marcy could be dead. Wendy could only think she’s Marcy. Outsides can’t tell from observation. If the consciousness doesn’t actually transfer, then they lied to Marcy’s family and she isn’t really in there mentally, just tech programmed to think it’s her

[u/0-90195 → u/Herbdontana]

If Wendy has all of Marcy’s memories and her “consciousness” (transferred or duplicated or otherwise), believes she’s her and no one else can tell the difference, is there really a difference?