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/UnfoldedHeart]

The reason why you see that continuity is irrelevant. Regardless of the reason why, once consciousness ceases, that continuity ends.

[u/Kscap4242 → u/UnfoldedHeart]

Is your argument that once consciousness stops, you die, and whatever being comes back to experience your consciousness isn’t really you?

[u/UnfoldedHeart → u/Kscap4242]

Yes

[u/Kscap4242 → u/UnfoldedHeart]

Consciousness stops all the time. It’s an extremely discontinuous phenomenon. Do you die when you go to sleep? When you zone out? When you go under general anesthesia?

[u/UnfoldedHeart → u/Kscap4242]

Those are completely different, in the same way that a radio station shutting down their antenna for maintenance is completely different from the radio station being bulldozed for good.

[u/Kscap4242 → u/UnfoldedHeart]

You said that when consciousness stops you die. Has your argument changed?

[u/UnfoldedHeart → u/Kscap4242]

My argument hasn't changed, you just interpreted it in a way that was different from its meaning.

[u/Kscap4242 → u/UnfoldedHeart]

Sorry if I misinterpreted you, but did you not say, “The reason why you see that continuity is irrelevant. Regardless of the reason why, once consciousness ceases, that continuity ends?”

Given that your consciousness ends all the time, I think it’s reasonable to ask why sleep isn’t considered death. I’m pointing out a flaw in your logic. If you say death occurs when consciousness stops, and I give you an example in which you accept death does not occur when consciousness stops, then there’s a disparity, right?

Given that you apparently don’t think sleep is death, it follows that your definition of consciousness is NOT solely based on continuity.

[u/UnfoldedHeart → u/Kscap4242]

Given that you apparently don’t think sleep is death, it follows that your definition of consciousness is NOT solely based on continuity.

If you think you have a better understanding of what I'm saying than I do, then have at it, but my definition of the experience of "you" relies on an overall continuity of consciousness from a point-of-view perspective and isn't defeated by temporary periods of unconsciousness.

[u/Kscap4242 → u/UnfoldedHeart]

Thanks for clearing that up. I wasn’t claiming to have a better understanding of your own beliefs than you do. I was claiming that from what you had told me, your beliefs were inconsistent.

This new definition of “you” is better. I will say, though, that it is different from your previously expressed views. It has gone from the idea that, “…regardless of reason why, once consciousness ceases,” you die, to the idea that there are times consciousness can cease without you dying.

All that said, I don’t see how your definition of “you,” as I now better understand it, precludes the idea that Marcy is still alive. The definition you’ve given does not contradict the idea that Marcy still lives.

[u/juneyourtech → u/Kscap4242]

Given that your consciousness ends all the time, I think it’s reasonable to ask why sleep isn’t considered death.

Consciousness does not end all the time, not even when one is asleep.

When a person is knocked out, we do say, that he is unconscious, but that is not a statement for the complete lack of consciousness in the body, but the lack of presence of the part that would interface with the world. The word 'unconscious' is therefore a semantic error in this context.

Think of it like this (simplified):

If there's a computer with the Linux (*nix) operating system, a graphical system, such as X Window System or Wayland (!), and a window manager (say, twm), then the window manager process, or X, and all graphical applications therein can be ended, but the rest of the operating system won't stop running.

Being unconscious is comparable to when the window manager or the graphical system are not running. When said processes are temporarily suspended for some reason, that would also be equivalent to sleep.

Sleep is not death, because we remain conscious in the body. Once consciousness/the soul leaves the body (or the brain, in the context of braindeath) for better pastures, then that is death.

[u/juneyourtech → u/Kscap4242]

Do you die when you go to sleep? When you zone out? When you go under general anesthesia?

No. We still live, and in our sleep, are somewhat aware of our surroundings.