psyche

Alice kills your friend Bob. Alice then dies in a traffic collision, but luckily the Umbrella corporation have found a way to replace her with an exact copy. Not a clone grown from her genetic material, but an exact copy of her physical state from just after she killed Bob (they were tracking her by satellite, you see). They generate and deploy this copy, Alice₂.

Alice₂, if we assume that all mental stuff is some complex physical stuff going on in the brain, has all the memories etc. of Alice and essentially believes she is Alice, right? Alice₂ is exactly the same as Alice… but she didn’t kill Bob. Of course, she believes she did, but she didn’t. Everyone else believes she did, but she didn’t. She even has physical evidence (powdery stuff from the gun, Bob’s blood) on her because she was copied from Alice after Alice got stuff… on her. But she was not the being that killed Bob!

So, does she deserve to be punished for killing Bob? I’ll say no, because she wasn’t the one who killed him!

But then, imagine the whole Alice₂ thing never happened and that Alice wasn’t involved in the traffic collision. She is the same as Alice₂, but she did kill Bob. So she should be punished? Yes. She killed Bob. But what if all that matters is the physical state of people? I mean, that contains their emotions and stuff… it’s not like we’re discarding their human-ness and such. Then they’re the same… this is wrong, isn’t it?

Clearly, there is a difference between Alice₂ and Alice… but it can’t be found their physical state. It’s not actually anything to do with them… it’s to do with us. The guilt of Alice is a concept that exists within me (I’m simplifying; I should say, exists inside the audience). This attribute of Alice’s is not something that can be replicated… well. I don’t think I really have a point to make.

Of course, if no-one knows about Alice killing Bob, then Alice and Alice₂ are the same. Oh dear.

Pax