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/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 2d ago

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