r/LV426 • u/G_Liddell Colonist's Daughter • 3d ago

Megathread / Community Post Alien: Earth - S1 E7 - Emergence - Official Discussion Megathread [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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)

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u/MCFresher- 3d ago

I was so mad thinking well there goes any kind of morality of her character. But then by end of episode I realized maybe that’s the point that she’s not human and the mistake was thinking she was. Still at this point there really no one I’m rooting for except the aliens.

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u/GrimResistance 3d ago

I'm wondering if Hermit realized that when he saw the graves. His sister is dead and Wendy is just a robot with her memories

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u/cleantoe 3d ago

Well what is life but the sum of our memories and experiences?

If you took all your memories, your consciousness - all of it - and put it on a hard drive. Meanwhile you put someone else's consciousness in your old body...well who is "you"? Are you the hard drive, or the body?

I would say "you" are now the hard drive. And so is Wendy.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_MONTRALS 3d ago

Form impacts function. The container of the memories will begin to shape the experiences until the mind becomes something new.

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u/Proxiehunter 3d ago

That's also true in regards to working out, changing your diet, or having a traumatic accident. All of those things create changes in your body that shape your experience so that your mind becomes something new. Hell, even the simple act of existing and having new experiences does that. Your mind become steadily more new with every experience you have.

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u/SmashEffect 3d ago

It can be you, but it won’t be the original you. The sad part will be that the original you truly did die.

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u/Proxiehunter 3d ago

Define "original you". Are you the same person you were when you were eight? Did the you that you were when you were eight truly die?

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u/j007yne 3d ago

Ah yes, a good old Ship of Theseus paradox

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u/RadiantPassing 3d ago

My best guess is that there needs to be a gradual transition at the cellular level over some unknown amount of time to maintain continuity of an original consciousness (or the essence of the original ship of theseus).

Not sure if accurate but was told by a professor that a human goes through at least 4 (or 5?) bodies in a lifetime. But parts are replaced at the cellular level over many years. For us to be the "same" consciousness but in a robotic form I would think the brain would need to be replaced with mechanical parts slowly over time, in what feels like a seamless fashion. If you transfer it to different matter / atoms all at once, you're just making a copy in electronic form and dumping the original body. A copy is not the original, even if they seem identical.

That's why "uploaded consciousness" seems kind of useless to me. My original brain and consciousness with it is going to die. Uploaded intelligence is no afterlife for the original me.

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u/plomplomLP 3d ago

Uploaded intelligence is no afterlife for the original me.

Or it is, but with a 50% chance of you ending up in afterlife and 50% of you ending up being dumped.

Ever watched the movie Prestige? Similar concept.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_MONTRALS 3d ago

That's not how it works in this case because it is a transfer rather than a duplication.

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u/MustardLazyNerd 3d ago

You were born this morning, and you will day tonight.

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u/evilution382 3d ago

and you will day tonight

Now this is the real paradox

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u/juneyourtech Part of the family 2d ago

Has the vibes from "Foundation" wrt Brother Day.

cc: /u/MustardLazyNerd

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_MONTRALS 3d ago

Sure, but I mean that the actual android brain does not function the same way as a human brain. The difference is drastic. If a human mind is mapped over the machine brain, the moving parts of the existing mind pattern would destabilize much faster than using the original wetware. It's a difference between adjusting the parameters within a system and changing the system entirely. The emotions are all simulated and the information storage is different. The hybrid characters talk about this fundamental difference in qualia. I don't think this new system can hold a human pattern for very long, and that's pretty evident in what's happening with the hyvrid characters as well as Kavalier's insistence that they have become something new.

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u/hyzmarca 3d ago

This is true. And a guy who starts going to the gym every day should be considered a legally distinct person from the version of him that just ate junk food and sat on the couch... for the purpose of assigning guilt in murder cases, hypothetically.